Latest news with #PMGH
ABC News
04-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
In Papua New Guinea's main hospital, thousands of women were left on the floor after giving birth
Less than 24 hours after giving birth, Christina Paulus is lying on the floor of a busy corridor in Papua New Guinea's main hospital. Nurses hurry around with charts. A cleaner wheels a mop bucket past her head. Beside her on the linoleum floor, another woman's baby starts to cry. As she rolls over to settle her newborn, Christina winces in pain. She lost more than a litre of blood during the birth. "The wounds are there. So when I'm sitting on the floor, it's uncomfortable," she says. Around her, dozens of women and their babies are in the same predicament — sprawled on the floor in hallways and cramped in front of a reception desk. Hallways cramped with women on the floor make delivering treatment difficult for staff. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) Blocked sinks, broken walls and toilets that don't work properly It's a scene that obstetrician Glen Mola is confronted with every morning when he walks into the maternity ward at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), where he's worked since 1987. The once-charming wooden building — known fondly as the Susu Mamas clinic — was erected in 1958, when Papua New Guinea was under Australian colonial rule. Staff say the maternity ward at Port Moresby General Hospital is struggling to cope. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) "It's all PNG hardwood. It will never collapse," Dr Mola says, tapping the scuffed timber beneath his feet. But he says the facility is in a state of severe neglect due to a lack of investment by hospital management. "The walls are broken. The toilets are not working well. Some of the sinks are blocked. Lights are not working, taps don't work," Dr Mola says. "There's no soap in the soap dispensers, no paper towels, so we dry our hands on our trousers. We need to do better. "We're losing the ability to cope." A key part of the problem is PNG's rapidly expanding population. "The facilities we have here are sufficient for about 10,000 women a year. And we exceeded 10,000 back in the 90s," Dr Mola says. While the country hasn't It's clear that the capital, Port Moresby, is growing faster than many services can keep up with — Dr Mola's maternity ward included. "People move into this city. I would say more than 1,000 a day, possibly," he estimates. One of Papua New Guinea's most respected doctors, Glen Mola says he's disappointed to see services in decline. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) Thousands of women treated on hospital floor Frustrated with the conditions, Dr Mola and his team began documenting the state of care in the maternity ward last year. In 2024, they found more than 7,000 women — about one in four — who visited the hospital to give birth received at least some of their care on the floor. "Not being able to provide a bed for medical care is not just challenging from an ethical, social point. It's undignified, it's almost against rights, actually," Dr Mola says. It also makes the work nearly impossible for staff. "There's no way a midwife can sit down or kneel down on the floor beside you when there's blood and urine and [amniotic fluid] and faeces," he says. " Having a baby is a bit of a messy procedure — we need a bed with proper sort of hygiene and asepsis. " Photo shows A man under anaesthetic lays on an operating table with his eyes closed, a breathing tube in his mouth Many of Papua New Guinea's remote hospitals are struggling to survive, with no money, limited supplies, and patients in dire need of their help. Over the Easter long weekend, two women and two babies died, at least partly because of insufficient capacity, according to Dr Mola. He explains that a relaxed, comfortable environment is crucial for promoting positive birth outcomes. "Birthing women require quietness, calmness, an ambience that makes them confident and feel as though everything's OK and they're being looked after," he says. "Anxiety and fear are very anti-having-the-baby. If you have a lot of anxiety and fear, then women don't birth well." Maternity ward upgrade ditched for hotel As Dr Mola nears the end of his career, he is disappointed to see how things have gone downhill. He's adamant it shouldn't be this way — and if everything had gone according to plan, he believes the clinic would be in a much better state today. In 2022, the Japanese government committed $37 million in grant funding to revamp the Susu Mama wing with a new perinatal clinic that included more beds, a specialist ICU and laboratory. Photo shows Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape points up with his right index finger. Seventy projects outlined in a confidential PNG cabinet document include acquiring a luxury island in partnership with a Congolese rapper, exploring the potential for a world-class Formula 1 track, creating a "Silicon Valley style hub" for entrepreneurs and setting up a spy agency. After more than 10 months of consultation with midwives, doctors, the Japanese embassy and developers, a comprehensive plan was presented to the hospital board. But it was rejected because, according to Dr Mola, management believed it "did not fit with their vision for the future development of PMGH". "The CEO looked at our plan and saw that it was going to be on this site and not on the site that he wants … so he can use this site for the hotel and shopping precinct," Dr Mola says. He says the hospital's alternative plan is to build a new maternity wing in an eight-storey tower at a different site — which he argues is impractical. Hospital management wants to upgrade smaller hospital PMGH chief executive Dr Paki Molumi declined to answer questions posed by the ABC. In a statement, National Capital District governor Powes Parkop said the Japanese grant was not refused, but PMGH management believed the money should go towards upgrading a smaller hospital on the city's outskirts. Port Moresby General Hospital CEO Dr Paki Molumi declined to answer questions about conditions in the hospital. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) "With more available land and growing infrastructure, [it] is ideally positioned to handle primary maternity and child health services for the city's rapidly growing population," Mr Parkop said. He explained it was part of a larger plan to transition PMGH to a "level 6" hospital that will focus solely on specialised referrals and teaching, rather than serving direct admissions like maternity and child health cases. Photo shows Men in protective medical gowns pile coffins into a mass grave. High burial costs are forcing families to abandon the bodies of loved ones at Papua New Guinea's public morgue, and many are ending up in mass graves. In the longer-term, the provincial health authority wants to bolster smaller hospitals around the city to deal with primary care. But Dr Mola says the maternity ward needs urgent relief. PNG's Prime Minister James Marape has, in principle, thrown his weight behind the call. Mr Marape summoned Health Minister Elias Kapavore to discuss issues at the hospital on Friday — a meeting Dr Mola described as "very positive", with the PM pledging funding or the cause. "There is a need right away. We need to attend to it. So, we will attend to the immediate need as well as the long-term need," Mr Marape told ABC. And with the average woman in PNG having at least four children in her life, Dr Mola, and the women he cares for, are depending on that promise being fulfilled.
Scoop
30-04-2025
- Health
- Scoop
The Continuing Struggle In PNG To Provide Hospital Beds
Article – RNZ Prime Minister James Marape has summoned his Health Minister and other health officials to meet this Friday to address issues of hospital overcrowding., RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist Papua New Guinea's Health Minister Elias Kapavore and other health officials have been summoned by Prime Minister James Marape to meet this Friday to address issues of hospital overcrowding. TVWAN reports the country's leading gynaecologist, Dr Glen Mola, has raised concerns about mothers giving birth on the floor of Port Moresby General Hospital's (PMGH) maternity wing. Marape has intervened, and he wants the delays in a Japanese government grant aid project to upgrade the maternity wing at Port Moresby General to be addressed. He said the hospital management had not confirmed acceptance of the project. The Prime Minister said if Dr Mola says there is a crisis, authorities must act immediately and plan for the future. He said the hospital was built for a city of under 200,000, but the population is now nearly five times that. Marape said he has emphasised urgent short-term interventions and reaffirmed broader plans, including suburban hospitals, and a new National Capital District hospital in partnership with the NCD and development partners. In January 2021, PMGH chief executive Dr Paki Molumi said the discrepancy between demand and supply was causing overcrowding at the hospital. He said at the time that the hospital served over a million people in NCD, Central and Gulf Provinces. RNZ Pacific spoke with our PNG correspondent Scott Waide about the ongoing overcrowding issues. (The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) DON WISEMAN: We've known for a long time that there's been issues in the health sector. In Papua New Guinea not enough room in the hospitals. But I think possibly the thing for Papua New Guinea is the population soaring. Now I don't know if there have been too many new hospitals built in the last 10 years, so how bad is it? SCOTT WAIDE: Having spoken to various patients who have been to the hospitals, particularly in the Port Moresby General Hospital, and Lae's Angau Hospital, there is a serious problem in terms of bed space for the maternity wings, especially labour delivery facilities for the women. There have been ongoing situations where women have had to give birth on the floor, and that has existed for several years now. It is a situation that doctors and nurses, who are directly dealing with it on the frontline, are either too afraid to speak out or have been warned not to speak out about it. The media does not always have access to that information. It always comes out to other sources only when there is a major crisis, like somebody actually dies, then we get information out of it. In recent weeks, Dr Glen Mola has come out and spoken about it again. It is not a new issue, but coming from a doctor who is prominent and on the frontlines dealing with it, has a huge impact on the manner in which people respond to it, especially the government. DW: Even the prime minister, who incidentally, has called a meeting with his health minister to explain, later this week, even he is pointing out that Port Moresby General Hospital was built for a population of 200,000 and the city's nearly five times that size. SW: Now there are two issues that have to be considered when you are talking about population. One is the actual population of Port Moresby, and Lae and Mt Hagen as well – the residents who live there. The other problem that is compounding this population increase is the migration of people from the upper Highlands, who are facing issues of tribal violence, migrating in large numbers into Mount Hagan, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Morobe, especially Lae and Port Moresby. So you have got these large numbers of people. The facilities [for] education [and] health, are unable to deal with that influx of people coming in. Previously, towards the end of last year, the Western Highlands governor raised concerns about the number of people coming into Mt Hagen and called on MPs in the upper Highlands to deal with the issues, as he put it. Deal with the issues and contain the crisis that is happening in the highlands so that we stem the migration, or at least mitigate the problems associated with this steady migration of people, migration of large numbers of people. DW: I guess, as well as avoiding tribal fighting, these people will be coming, supposedly for the better services that they would find in the cities. But what is being done to improve these facilities? SW: The government is saying that it is working to improve the facilities. The problem there is that the amount of money that the Health Department gets is not according to what is stipulated in the national budget. For instance, between 2023 and 2024 the Health Department just got a third of its total budget, which was about 200 million [kina]. It actually needs about anything between 300 and 400 million per year. The other thing is a lot of the money is tied in District Support grants. It is going directly to the districts. It is not coming into things like the recurrent budget where it is really needed. So it is that problem that needs to be sorted out within Finance [Ministry], and also the availability of cash coming into the system. A budget can be made in Waigani in November and passed in November, but the actual cash coming to a department like Health, they are always drip fed.
Scoop
30-04-2025
- Health
- Scoop
The Continuing Struggle In PNG To Provide Hospital Beds
, RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist Papua New Guinea's Health Minister Elias Kapavore and other health officials have been summoned by Prime Minister James Marape to meet this Friday to address issues of hospital overcrowding. TVWAN reports the country's leading gynaecologist, Dr Glen Mola, has raised concerns about mothers giving birth on the floor of Port Moresby General Hospital's (PMGH) maternity wing. Marape has intervened, and he wants the delays in a Japanese government grant aid project to upgrade the maternity wing at Port Moresby General to be addressed. He said the hospital management had not confirmed acceptance of the project. The Prime Minister said if Dr Mola says there is a crisis, authorities must act immediately and plan for the future. He said the hospital was built for a city of under 200,000, but the population is now nearly five times that. Marape said he has emphasised urgent short-term interventions and reaffirmed broader plans, including suburban hospitals, and a new National Capital District hospital in partnership with the NCD and development partners. In January 2021, PMGH chief executive Dr Paki Molumi said the discrepancy between demand and supply was causing overcrowding at the hospital. He said at the time that the hospital served over a million people in NCD, Central and Gulf Provinces. RNZ Pacific spoke with our PNG correspondent Scott Waide about the ongoing overcrowding issues. (The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) DON WISEMAN: We've known for a long time that there's been issues in the health sector. In Papua New Guinea not enough room in the hospitals. But I think possibly the thing for Papua New Guinea is the population soaring. Now I don't know if there have been too many new hospitals built in the last 10 years, so how bad is it? SCOTT WAIDE: Having spoken to various patients who have been to the hospitals, particularly in the Port Moresby General Hospital, and Lae's Angau Hospital, there is a serious problem in terms of bed space for the maternity wings, especially labour delivery facilities for the women. There have been ongoing situations where women have had to give birth on the floor, and that has existed for several years now. It is a situation that doctors and nurses, who are directly dealing with it on the frontline, are either too afraid to speak out or have been warned not to speak out about it. The media does not always have access to that information. It always comes out to other sources only when there is a major crisis, like somebody actually dies, then we get information out of it. In recent weeks, Dr Glen Mola has come out and spoken about it again. It is not a new issue, but coming from a doctor who is prominent and on the frontlines dealing with it, has a huge impact on the manner in which people respond to it, especially the government. DW: Even the prime minister, who incidentally, has called a meeting with his health minister to explain, later this week, even he is pointing out that Port Moresby General Hospital was built for a population of 200,000 and the city's nearly five times that size. SW: Now there are two issues that have to be considered when you are talking about population. One is the actual population of Port Moresby, and Lae and Mt Hagen as well - the residents who live there. The other problem that is compounding this population increase is the migration of people from the upper Highlands, who are facing issues of tribal violence, migrating in large numbers into Mount Hagan, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Morobe, especially Lae and Port Moresby. So you have got these large numbers of people. The facilities [for] education [and] health, are unable to deal with that influx of people coming in. Previously, towards the end of last year, the Western Highlands governor raised concerns about the number of people coming into Mt Hagen and called on MPs in the upper Highlands to deal with the issues, as he put it. Deal with the issues and contain the crisis that is happening in the highlands so that we stem the migration, or at least mitigate the problems associated with this steady migration of people, migration of large numbers of people. DW: I guess, as well as avoiding tribal fighting, these people will be coming, supposedly for the better services that they would find in the cities. But what is being done to improve these facilities? SW: The government is saying that it is working to improve the facilities. The problem there is that the amount of money that the Health Department gets is not according to what is stipulated in the national budget. For instance, between 2023 and 2024 the Health Department just got a third of its total budget, which was about 200 million [kina]. It actually needs about anything between 300 and 400 million per year. The other thing is a lot of the money is tied in District Support grants. It is going directly to the districts. It is not coming into things like the recurrent budget where it is really needed. So it is that problem that needs to be sorted out within Finance [Ministry], and also the availability of cash coming into the system. A budget can be made in Waigani in November and passed in November, but the actual cash coming to a department like Health, they are always drip fed.
RNZ News
30-04-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
The continuing struggle in PNG to provide hospital beds
In January 2021, Port Moresby General Hospital CEO said Dr Paki Molumi said there discrepancy between demand and supply was causing overcrowding at the hospital. Photo: Facebook / Port Moresby General Hospital Papua New Guinea's Health Minister Elias Kapavore and other health officials have been summoned by Prime Minister James Marape to meet this Friday to address issues of hospital overcrowding. TVWAN reports the country's leading gynaecologist, Dr Glen Mola, has raised concerns about mothers giving birth on the floor of Port Moresby General Hospital's (PMGH) maternity wing. Marape has intervened, and he wants the delays in a Japanese government grant aid project to upgrade the maternity wing at Port Moresby General to be addressed. He said the hospital management had not confirmed acceptance of the project. The Prime Minister said if Dr Mola says there is a crisis, authorities must act immediately and plan for the future. He said the hospital was built for a city of under 200,000, but the population is now nearly five times that. Marape said he has emphasised urgent short-term interventions and reaffirmed broader plans, including suburban hospitals, and a new National Capital District hospital in partnership with the NCD and development partners. In January 2021, PMGH chief executive Dr Paki Molumi said the discrepancy between demand and supply was causing overcrowding at the hospital. He said at the time that the hospital served over a million people in NCD, Central and Gulf Provinces. RNZ Pacific spoke with our PNG correspondent Scott Waide about the ongoing overcrowding issues. (The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) DON WISEMAN: We've known for a long time that there's been issues in the health sector. In Papua New Guinea not enough room in the hospitals. But I think possibly the thing for Papua New Guinea is the population soaring. Now I don't know if there have been too many new hospitals built in the last 10 years, so how bad is it? SCOTT WAIDE: Having spoken to various patients who have been to the hospitals, particularly in the Port Moresby General Hospital, and Lae's Angau Hospital, there is a serious problem in terms of bed space for the maternity wings, especially labour delivery facilities for the women. There have been ongoing situations where women have had to give birth on the floor, and that has existed for several years now. It is a situation that doctors and nurses, who are directly dealing with it on the frontline, are either too afraid to speak out or have been warned not to speak out about it. The media does not always have access to that information. It always comes out to other sources only when there is a major crisis, like somebody actually dies, then we get information out of it. In recent weeks, Dr Glen Mola has come out and spoken about it again. It is not a new issue, but coming from a doctor who is prominent and on the frontlines dealing with it, has a huge impact on the manner in which people respond to it, especially the government. DW: Even the prime minister, who incidentally, has called a meeting with his health minister to explain, later this week, even he is pointing out that Port Moresby General Hospital was built for a population of 200,000 and the city's nearly five times that size. SW: Now there are two issues that have to be considered when you are talking about population. One is the actual population of Port Moresby, and Lae and Mt Hagen as well - the residents who live there. The other problem that is compounding this population increase is the migration of people from the upper Highlands, who are facing issues of tribal violence, migrating in large numbers into Mount Hagan, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Morobe, especially Lae and Port Moresby. So you have got these large numbers of people. The facilities [for] education [and] health, are unable to deal with that influx of people coming in. Previously, towards the end of last year, the Western Highlands governor raised concerns about the number of people coming into Mt Hagen and called on MPs in the upper Highlands to deal with the issues, as he put it. Deal with the issues and contain the crisis that is happening in the highlands so that we stem the migration, or at least mitigate the problems associated with this steady migration of people, migration of large numbers of people. DW: I guess, as well as avoiding tribal fighting, these people will be coming, supposedly for the better services that they would find in the cities. But what is being done to improve these facilities? SW: The government is saying that it is working to improve the facilities. The problem there is that the amount of money that the Health Department gets is not according to what is stipulated in the national budget. For instance, between 2023 and 2024 the Health Department just got a third of its total budget, which was about 200 million [kina]. It actually needs about anything between 300 and 400 million per year. The other thing is a lot of the money is tied in District Support grants. It is going directly to the districts. It is not coming into things like the recurrent budget where it is really needed. So it is that problem that needs to be sorted out within Finance [Ministry], and also the availability of cash coming into the system. A budget can be made in Waigani in November and passed in November, but the actual cash coming to a department like Health, they are always drip fed.
