PNG Doctors Association says reforms threatening service delivery

THE proposed reform of the Port Moresby General Hospital to become an authority is threatening its service as a national referral hospital, the National Doctors Association says.
The association last year opposed the move which was done to Government business entities such as PNG Power and Telikom.
Association secretary and the hospital chief emergency physician Sam Yolkopua said service delivery and the referral system being enjoyed were at risk.
He said under the health department restructure and the health standard recognised the institution as a level seven hospital.
“This means that it is a national referral hospital for the country. Any patient is supposed to seek medication there,” Yolkopua said.
“Any big sponsor who wants to give service to the people around the country comes here.”
Yolkopua said the hospital provided training for University of PNG medical students, which could be taken away by the proposed authority.
“Now they want to push the medical school away and do not want to deal with any practical issues,” he said.
“The training of the doctors through hospital sponsorship for further training in the medical school is at stake.”
Yolkopua said the closure of the school through the hospital implied a segregation of the school, which produced the country’s doctors.

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