PNG Haus Bung

Most rural areas around the country lack the number of doctors available to serve the people at their local health centers. President for Rural Doctors, Dr Kiaufuli Hongande said that there are a number of factors that affect recruiting and retaining a doctor in the rural areas. There are 4 factors that will act as pull factors to for rural doctors; • Professional Development Opportunities – Provide opportunities for rural doctors to further their studies. • Good Financial Incentives – Added bonus that will help maintain rural doctors • Deep Satisfaction – The feeling of being appreciated, respected by the community • Social Amenities - Access to good housing, banks, schools etc “When rural doctors are taken care off well, they stay in the rural areas.” “There are also other factors such as the heart or a religious conviction to go serve in the rural areas.” “When people have good doctors in their areas, people must nurture them and take care of them.” He added that people that are sent to work in the rural areas must have the passion to serve the people. He further added that Managers must be fair and treat their employees well. The Minister for Health & HIV/AIDS, Dr Lino Tom said that rural doctors must not forget their humble beginnings, noting that a bulk of the health work in country is done by rural doctors. “After training mi bin go bek na wok long ol rural health facilities wankain olsem yupla so ol problem wea yupla wok long toktok long em, mi klia stret (After training I went back and worked at rural health facilities like you so I know about the problems that you are facing).” He said that rural doctors are the real heroes in the country by delivering quality health services with hardly any facilities available to them. “I want to thank the prime minister for increasing the health budget and giving us K121million for the health workforce.” In terms of workforce in the rural areas, Dr Lino said they are doing a workforce audit. They are also doing infrastructure audit to see where who is working, what facilities they have and how they are providing health care  

Head of Police Crimes Division, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Hodges Ette has said that there is no need for a new law to guide the use of drug machines for the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary's (RPNGC) Forensic services. ACP Ette was responding to an article in the daily newspapers titled, ‘Law to guide use of new drug machine’ saying this is a miss-statement. “We don’t need a new law, all we need is an internal policy mechanism that will regulate the use of the machine.” “There are laws available to regulate its use including section 14 of the Police Act, which allows the Police Commissioner to enquire into certain matters at his discretion and that covers all functions of the constabulary.” “I’d like to inform our people that Deputy Police Commissioner Administration Joanne Clarkson has issued a directive for a policy document to regulate drug machine use and our policy team has already begun the drafting.” “This policy will cover the usage and the need for testing police officers if they are accused of drug abuse, recruitment or employer requirements and other suspects cases as and when need arises.” “Also, we will have to inform the judiciary and magisterial services that we have new capabilities that they may find themselves looking at in our (police) files.”  

Malaria has always been a leading cause of illness and death in the country with more than 90% of Papua New Guineans at risk from getting Malaria. This was revealed during the commemoration of World Malaria Day on 25th April, by the National Department of Health at the Kerea Primary School at the Vanapa Brown Local Level Government (LLG) in the Central province. This year the theme is, ‘Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, innovate and Implement.’ The school was chosen because the school was in an area that is one of the worst Malaria Hit areas in the Country. The National Department of Health Malaria Program Coordinator, Mr. Leo Makita delivered the keynote speech on behalf of the Minister for Health & HIV/AIDS Dr. Lino Tom. He said that Malaria is an old pandemic that continues to cause death and devastation here in the country. Makita said that Malaria is a deadly disease which is transmitted by mosquitoes and rural populations are most vulnerable where access to health services is difficult. In the Western Pacific Region, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has the highest malaria burden where children and pregnant women are most likely to get very sick and die if they are not diagnosed early and treated effectively. Makita added that Malaria is a preventable illness and can be avoided by sleeping under a mosquito net and taking steps to avoid mosquitoes breeding and getting bitten by mosquitoes. Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM) Programme Manager, Tim Freeman said they are proud to be the biggest implementing partner of the National Department of Health’s National Malaria Control Program. “Malaria thrives in warm temperatures and is therefore the worst in coastal areas of PNG.” “As you go higher, malaria gets less and less and then disappears at high altitudes in districts such as Kandep in Enga.” “If you have fever, chills, headaches and joint pains, you should go to a health worker and get tested for malaria. If you have malaria, you should take full treatment given to ensure you get well.” Freeman highlighted that over the last 13 years RAM has worked together with NDOH to distribute nets to all villages. RAM also works closely with Provincial Health Authorities to ensure that the malaria program reaches every village and family in the country. In addition to household distribution, RAM also distributed nets to pregnant women through health centres. Freeman further stated that the biggest problem with treating malaria in the country is that people live long distances from the a health facility, so they have come up with a new program where village volunteers are trained on how to test and treat malaria, so it is accessible to all people in remote areas. This program is present in 10 provinces and is expanding.

Airways Hotel & Residences has come onboard as a sponsor for the Digicel PNG Foundation Men of Honour Awards for the 7th season. The Men of Honour Campaign is a peace building initiative by Digicel PNG Foundation that focuses on positive behavior with the aim to break the cycle of violence in Papua New Guinea (PNG). So far, the Men of Honour Campaign has awarded 95 men across the nation on the outstanding work they are doing in their communities to build peace and address drivers of violence in their community. Three ambassadors will be selected from each of the four regions, with one ‘Unsung Hero’ award going to an ambassador from each region. Airways Hotel & Residences Group General Manager Robert O’Brien said Airways is proud to partner with Digicel Foundation with a sponsorship worth K35, 000. He said Airways will provide accommodation with meals to the 12 Men of Honour ambassadors selected from across the four regions for three nights. O’Brien said this partnership compliments what Airways has been doing in the workplace in promoting gender equality and addressing violence. ‘‘There is value in investing as a supporting partner to this program.” “We would also be interested in providing ongoing support including adopting the program concept and messaging by localizing it within the Airways Group.’’ Meanwhile, Digicel PNG Foundation Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Serena Sasingian, was pleased to welcome Airways Hotel & Residences for taking up the responsibility to accommodate the Men of Honour ambassadors during their stay in Port Moresby. “We are delighted to have Airways come on board as a sponsor to support the Men of Honour Campaign.” “We are grateful for the partnership we have with companies in the private sector that not only want to sponsor the Men of Honour, but champion the message within their company.” “We thank Airways Hotel & Residences for their contribution and look forward to working together.’’ The Men of Honour Awards will be hosted in Port Moresby on 3 May 2023.

Two SP PNG Hunters have been rewarded for their outstanding performances in the opening 6 rounds of the QRL Hostplus Cup. Hunters centre, Rodrick Tai and fullback Morea Morea have both been invited to train with The Dolphins NRL squad over the next month as they continue their rugby league development. Tai, who spent the offseason in Redcliffe under the watchful eye of Wayne Bennett, rejoins The Dolphins training squad this week on the back of a compelling start to the Hostplus Cup season. The strike centre has two tries and an average 129 running metres from four games this year to consistently be one of the Hunters best. While at just 21 years old, Morea joins Tai at The Dolphins this week in what will be his first taste of NRL-level coaching. The young fullback has been a revelation for the Hunters in season 2023 with four tries, four assists and 126 average running metres from five appearances. He has a raw talent and will benefit greatly from training alongside NRL household names like Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Jamayne Isaako. Both Morea and Tai will train fulltime with The Dolphins NRL squad over the next month while lining up for the SP PNG Hunters in the QRL Hostplus Cup on the weekends.  

Kenyan police have exhumed 47 bodies near the coastal town of Malindi, as they investigate a preacher said to have told followers to starve to death. The bodies of children were among the dead. Police said exhumations are ongoing. The shallow graves are in Shakahola forest, where 15 members of the Good News International Church were rescued last week. Church leader, Paul Makenzie Nthenge is in custody, pending a court appearance. State broadcaster KBC described him as a "cult leader", and reported that 58 graves have so far been identified. One of the graves is believed to contain the bodies of five members of the same family - three children and their parents. Mr Nthenge has denied wrongdoing, but has been refused bail. He insists that he shut down his church in 2019. He allegedly told followers to starve themselves in order to "meet Jesus". Kenyan daily, The Standard, said pathologists will take DNA samples and conduct tests to determine whether the victims died of starvation. Police arrested Mr Nthenge on 15 April after discovering the bodies of four people suspected of having starved themselves to death. Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Social Justice Centre told Citizen TV "when we are in this forest and come to an area where we see a big and tall cross, we know that means more than five people are buried there". Kenyan interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said all 800 acres of the forest had been sealed off and declared a crime scene. Mr Nthenge allegedly named three villages Nazareth, Bethlehem and Judea and baptised followers in ponds before telling them to fast, The Standard reports. Kenya is a religious country and there have been previous cases of people being lured into dangerous, unregulated churches or cults. Source: BBC

Christian Health Services (CHS) Papua New Guinea (PNG) opened their 4 day 53rd General Assembly Conference today in the city of Port Moresby. This conference is where the General Assembly Council Members and Executive Board members meet to discuss important issues, developments, challenges and possible avenues in providing primary health care services to the rural population in the country. With the Theme: Recapturing Christ’s Vision and Mission in the Delivery of Quality Health Services. The National Department of Health Deputy Secretary, Mr. Ken Wai officially opened the conference and thanked CHS for the work that they do in the rural areas. “Your personal efforts, your leadership efforts, your management efforts are being recognised by the government.” “You will now be rewarded so keep up the good work.” “We (Health Department) will continue to support you, but remember that you are not a public servant, you are mission workers.” He said that even though now staff of CHS will be on payroll, they are still expected to continue working in the rural areas. He added that CHS must work together with NDOH to implement the National Health Plan 2021 – 2023. He further added that CHS must continue to carry out their TB programs and other routine immunization programs. There will be discussions and presentations done by the government bodies and donors as well as stake holders over the next few days of the conference.

Brisbane produced their most clinical first half performance of the season before fending off a late Eels comeback to win 26-16 in Darwin on Friday night. The Broncos ran in four tries in the opening 40 minutes to set up a 22-6 lead with the combination of halves Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam running riot on the back of a strong platform set by Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan up front early. The ladder leaders then controlled the game in the second half with a further two penalty goals ruling out any chance of an Eels comeback despite two tries in five minutes giving the home side a sniff. Parramatta were coming off a five-day turnaround which appeared to play a part in their lacklustre performance in humid conditions that soon turned torrential at TIO Stadium. The Eels were under the pump from the opening with the visitors taking a 6-0 lead through a try via Herbie Farnworth following a Sean Russell mistake in the air. Brad Arthur's men bounced back with a try of their own off the boot with Clint Gutherson showing his soccer skills to pick up and collect a ball in the in-goal. That was where the end-to-end tussle essentially ended, however, with the Broncos piling on three tries in nine minutes to set up a 16-point lead. It all started with Reynolds finishing off a Mam flick pass for a try before Kotoni Staggs kept a Reece Walsh kick alive to hit it back to Mam for a four-pointer of his own. Reynolds, who had the ball on a string all evening, then set up Staggs with a kick across field that had the perfect bounce for the Broncos centre to go over.   Source: NRL.com

Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority has had an increase in women coming forward for cervical cancer screen at the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital. Cervical Cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus which is passed from one person to another through sexual encounters. Director of Curative Services, Dr Paulus Ripa said that the screening program has been in operation since May 2022 during which over 2,500 women have been screened. “The Clinic has 8 GeneXpert Machines and they can use 4 machines at the same time to test specimens.” “The Clinic is swamped with people coming in and they see about 60-70 women in a day.” “They come in the morning sit through an awareness session, they are screened then they are given their self swapping kits where the women do the swabs themselves and the specimen is given to our staff to run the test.” Dr Ripa said their results are ready in 90 minutes and the women that are negative for the human papillomavirus are sent home and told to come back in 5 years for screening again. "About 15% of the women that come forward for screening are found to be positive for HPV and they undergo treatment right away." "From the screening, 2% of the women have evidence of cancer in the cervix." He highlighted that it is important for women between the ages of 30-60 years old to go to the clinic for free screening. The Provincial Health Authority has an outreach program where specially fitted trucks go out to the communities and conduct screening for women and girls in the area. This outreach program is done every second week where they screen about 200 women. Dr Ripa added that in the past not much awareness on Cervical cancer and screening was conducted however, the women in the communities are informed as word of mouth is spreading through the women groups that have come in for screening. "Screening is open not only to women in Western Highlands but women in surrounding provinces are more than welcome."

Capital Insurance has announced a 3rd year partnership with Cricket PNG to provide insurance to the Kumul Petroleum PNG Barramundis Men’s & Kumul Petroleum PNG Lewas Women’s team. Capital Insurance has formed a close partnership with Cricket PNG over the past years supporting them in the insurance services and other community initiatives. The announcement was made at a business mixer hosted by Capital insurance in collaboration with the PNG Cricket Teams. Capital Insurance Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jeremy Norton said that he was pleased to announce the partnership. He said this year, they have increased their sponsorship and as a Papua New Guinean company, they are happy to get behind the team. Mr Norton highlighted that this partnership works well because it lets the players focus on playing while they take care of the insurance in terms of travel insurance and making sure that their assets are protected. Meanwhile, Cricket PNG Chief Executive Officer, Mr Gregory Campbell thanked Capital Insurance for coming on board for another year. He said the players are appreciative of this support as it gives them the opportunity to travel and play abroad, meet new people and focus on their training for upcoming games.

80 Participants from nursing colleges and community health workers’ schools around the country attended a week long training for health professional educators in port Moresby recently. Participants from 15 nursing and 17 CHW schools were introduced to the Continuing Professional Development Program which aims to equip educators with skills to be able teach the new curriculums and be able develop curriculums in the future. The training was a joint effort of the National Department of Health, Department of Higher Education Science and Technology, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing , Midwifery and Development and the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The project began in 2021 and is managed by the National Department of Health with financial support coming from the Australia Government through WHO CCT University of Technology, Sydney. Director for World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre, Professor Michelle Ramsey said this is part of the project, Evidence-based Curriculum Development and Implementation of National Curricular for Diploma of General Nursing and Certificate for Community Health Workers with the aim is to Strengthen72% of the Health Workforce in Papua New Guinea. The CPDP, also known as the Fast Track Project, aims to provide Recognition of Prior Learning into academic programs that will be hopefully developed in partnership with the University of PNG. The programs provisionally called: Bachelor of Health Professional Education and Graduate Diploma of Health Professional Education will enable the participants to increase their knowledge, skills and competency as teachers of health professionals. The CPD program outlined at this training will form part of that academic award once it is approved. Professor Ramsey also said that there are talks being held with relevant authorities and partners, including University of Papua New Guinea to offer these needed programs. Those who have begun the CPDP at this workshop will get a certificate at the end of the workshop and proposed qualification after two years if they continue and complete all the work based assessments in the program. Meanwhile, NDOH human resource technical advisor Mary Kililo said this training is preparing the participants to be able to teach the new curriculums which are due for delivery in 2024. “I’m happy that this review has been done, paving a way for upgrading in future of our programs to degree levels.’’ “This is also helping us to look at all the other health training programs which could come under the same framework, but from the specificity of their own programs.” Kililo said the reviewed curriculums are divided into four phases and the last of which is on implementation which will require mobilisation of resources. She added that the new curriculum will be taught from next year.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs scored two tries in the final five minutes to down premiers Penrith 20-18 in a Thursday night classic at Accor Stadium. After Latrell Mitchell grabbed his second of the game in the 75th minute to close the gap to two points it was Cody Walker laying on the match-winner for Isaiah Tass with a pearler of a pass with 90 seconds to play. The try was especially sweet for Tass given that he had missed a crucial tackle in the lead-up to hat-trick hero Stephen Crichton's first four-pointer for the Panthers. In a high-quality contest Crichton bagged all 18 points for the Panthers after taking over goalkicking duties from Nathan Cleary, who entered the game with a slight niggle in his groin but still came up with a number of big plays. The Panthers fired the first shot down the left edge when Izack Tago found space and Campbell Graham was forced to come up with a trysaver on Dylan Edwards to keep Souths' line intact. The Rabbitohs then had their first chance after Crichton's short dropout failed to go 10 metres but the premiers held firm. Some Mitchell brilliance from his own end put the Rabbitohs on the front foot midway through the half and it was Damien Cook who cashed in with a try out of dummy half. Mitchell converted to make it 6-0. The Rabbitohs had a golden opportunity to double their lead late in the half when they bundled Edwards into touch after he had taken a bomb but the Panthers' defence was rock solid for two sets and they came up the other end and made Souths pay. A barnstorming run by Spencer Leniu laid the platform and the ball then came right to Crichton, who left Tass in his wake to open Penrith's account with less than a minute to go in the half. Crichton's conversion made it 6-6. The Panthers took the lead through a penalty goal in the 49th minute after Mitchell's short dropout failed to go 10 metres and Crichton knocked over the easy two points. A penalty against Jai Arrow for a crusher tackle then put Penrith on the attack but a trysaver by Mitchell on Sunia Turuva kept the Souths line intact. In the 57th minute Mitchell stamped his class at the attacking end when he took a pass from Walker and surged through three defenders to put the Rabbitohs back in front at 10-8. With 15 minutes to play the Panthers looked to have regained the lead when the Rabbitohs made a mess of a Cleary grubber and Tago pounced but replays showed the centre had knocked on as he tried to ground the ball. A mistake by Mitchell on the next set invited the Panthers into the red zone again and Crichton finished off great lead-up work by Isaah Yeo, Cleary and Edwards to give the premiers a 12-10 lead. Crichton then made it a hat-trick with nine minutes to play when he flew high for a Cleary bomb, the ball bounced off his shoulder into the in-goal and he fell on the loose ball to stretch the Panthers' lead to 18-10. The Rabbitohs bounced back in the 75th minute when Mitchell grabbed his second off a Lachlan Ilias bomb and the margin was back to two points. With time running out the Rabbitohs went left and produced a stunning match-winner through Tass after brilliant lead-up by Alex Johnston and Walker. Source: NRL.Com