OBSTETRICIAN Dr Glen Mola is one medical professional who many in the country have a lot of respect for.
And there may be some who hate his guts, which is understandable.
But like him or loathe him, the good doctor frequently comes out in public pointing out some of the starkest, most challenging weaknesses of the public health system.
He speaks out quite a fair bit on maternal and child health, population and family planning in his role both as clinician and educator.
Papua New Guinea’s health issues are in plain sight for all to see or experience firsthand. But a few within the public health system dare speak about openly about them as does Dr Mola.
However, others in the public health sector might have grown so accustomed to the conditions about which Dr Mola decries, so much so that they take them for granted.
In his most recent ‘revelation’ Dr Mola pointed out the risky and undignified situation at the Port Moresby General Hospital’s maternity wing.
This paper, other mainstream and social media outlets constantly reporst on this situation at the hospital.
Pictures of mothers with their newborns taking naps or resting on the bare concrete floor of the hospital wing are upsetting. This should not be the situation in a present day modern health facility in a capital city.
Yet it is.
“It is neither dignified nor safe,” the good doctor said of the situation at the hospital.
Earlier in the month, officials at the country’s second biggest public hospital reported a similar situation where up hundreds of expectant mothers were admitted into Angau Hospital which has only a 40-bed postnatal ward.
The national health system is structured in a way that makes Port Moresby General Hospital a level six specialist national referral hospital that must focus on tertiary healthcare, especially the treatment of heart and kidney diseases and cancers.
The same structure requires all provinces to have level five provincial hospitals.
All other provinces have hospitals except National Capital District and Central.
This is the reason why Port Moresby General Hospital will remain a referral hospital that is constantly overburdened by primary and secondary healthcare matters from NCD and Central.
Progress on the provincial hospitals at Gerehu for NCD and Bautama outside Port Moresby city for Central has either slowed down or stalled for other more pressing developmental needs.
The ground breaking for the NCD provincial hospital at Gerehu happened in October 2024. Reports stated that the National Executive Council had already approved K30 million to start work on the much-needed hospital that would take some of the strain on the Port Moresby General Hospital.
For a city of 1.5 million people, Port Moresby is served only by a few urban clinics, not a fully operational level five provincial hospital.
Nothing could be more critical and urgent than seeing a provincial hospital built quickly with all statutory and resource requirements expedited.
Over at Bautama, the ground breaking was done in November 2021 for a K500 million provincial hospital to be built.
Like NCD, Central has district health centres and aid posts serving 360,000 people.
Some of those have not been operating for a while now.
Cases that would be managed at provincial level have therefore been referred to Port Moresby General Hospital.
And this has been the case for decades.
The Central hospital project has faced significant planning and funding delays and apparently has been pushed to the pending list as more pressing development needs have overtaken it in the contest for resource allocation.
As recently as last year, the matter was raised in parliament when nothing had been done since the 2021 ground breaking.
The lack of urgency by the NCD and Central provincial health authorities to get their hospital projects realised continues to put a strain on Port Moresby General Hospital.
It will continue admitting patients with primary and secondary health cases when it is meant to be a specialist referral and teaching hospital only.
Port Moresby General Hospital deserves to be allowed the freedom to fully serve its function.
