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Monday, May 10, 2010

Gerehu Hospital - a death trap facility

By PETER MEMAFU

 

Since moving back to Port Moresby in late February 2010, the deaths that occur within the new Gerehu hospital seem to be endless and I as someone who lives around the area needed to express my concerns for the appropriate authorities to act on the matter as soon as possible.

The point I am trying to make is that in the first two weeks after arriving in Port Moresby I counted almost eight deaths (one almost every day) and on one particular day (within 24 hours) there were four deaths – one death in the morning, one in the afternoon and two during the night.

There have been cases where people who were barely alive and were still fighting for their lives were simply pronounced dead when they were brought here. (…but who is qualified to actually pronounce people dead when they are brought in?) There were even cases that people who were still alive could not be attended to and so the verdict is to simply pronounce them dead and have their relative take them home and prepare them for burial.

It would seem that all these deaths happening at the Gerehu hospital seem to occur very frequently and almost every week too. I believe that this can only conclude that the medical staff who work there are either so negligent in their duties or simply are not qualified enough to work as professional hospital staff. 

Saint John’s personnel who are contracted by the Health Department to manage the hospital don’t seem to be any qualified than the doctors, nurses and/or other professionals who work at the Port Moresby General hospital and within the provinces.

I also hear that the highest level of any medical personnel you get here at the Gerehu hospital is maybe health extension officers, a nurse or a sister.  Not once did I notice a doctor or a surgical specialist or a professional working in this hospital.

My wife was sick one day and I decided to take her there at around 5am in the early hours of the morning and sat and waited thinking that since there was hardly anyone around we would get served and treated. To our surprise there were staff members there but not even one came to serve us or attended to our needs.

We continued to wait and remained there un-attended until 8.30am when the hospital started to fill up with the public and still we did not get served.  In the end I simply gave and took my wife to a private medical facility only to pay more so that I could get some attention and get her treated

Secretary Health, please do something about the frequent deaths that occur here or get someone qualified persons to manage and oversee the services of the Gerehu Hospital immediately.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:13 PM

    I read your item on Gerehu Hospital and I must say that I whole heartedly agree with you.

    I am not sure how accurate this information is, but my knowledge be it correct or not, is that St Johns is a contractor of health services to the Health department.

    No I am not sure about the details but I do know that a few years ago, St johns ambulance services was taken over by Doug Kelson. Doug Kelson was operating a building company, workshop and night club (all of which failed) previously out of his premises adjacent to stop and shop.
    I was surprised when all of a sudden he got the contract to run the ambulances.............
    What qualifications he has in the medical fields are beyond me.
    I do know that a couple of years ago he was using ambulances to do banking runs for business houses in moresby. Doug has always been a fly by night business man who is looking to make a quick buck and obviously he is still doing it now. He is hardly qualified to run a hospital, at the same time, st johns is sopposed to be a non profit organisation..... this is mearly my opinion, dont quote me as i could be wrong.

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