The National Capital District Provincial Health Authority (NCDPHA) has acknowledged legitimate public concerns regarding the overcrowding of the labor ward at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) and the limited capacity for maternity services across the region.

The shortage of birthing suites and beds is a long-standing structural challenge rather than a new problem; the authority is actively working with stakeholders to upgrade infrastructure that has stagnated since the 1970s.

To bridge the gap until the infrastructure catches up with population growth, NCDPHA has deployed short, medium, and long-term strategies.

In the short term, the operationalized Metoreia Urban Clinic, the 24/7 Six-Mile Polyclinic, and a partnership with the Nazarene Church at Gereka are successfully diverting thousands of primary care and maternity patients away from PMGH.

Medium-term relief is on the horizon with the nearing completion of a new four-bed birthing suite and operating theatre at Gerehu Hospital, alongside the construction of the Moresby South District Hospital.

Additionally, a funded expansion program is in motion to install more birthing suites across various regional clinics, while a new 20-bed Tuberculosis Ward at Six-Mile Polyclinic will soon free up an entire ward at PMGH.

Looking to the future, the construction of a new Level 5 Provincial Specialist Hospital will fundamentally decentralize specialist and maternity care, ending the historic over-reliance on a single referral hospital.

Addressing the community directly, NCDPHA stated, "No mother in Port Moresby — or anywhere in Papua New Guinea — should have to deliver her baby on the floor of a hospital ward. We accept it."

While acknowledging that progress must accelerate, the authority credited its staff and ongoing projects for absorbing the current burden and pledged continuous updates as these healthcare expansions advance.