Papua New Guinea health workforce crisis: A call to action

World Bank

• Download report: Papua New Guinea (PNG) health workforce crisis : a call to action

• Papua New Guinea faces a health workforce supply crisis arising from:

(i)    the current severely constrained training system for new health workforce cadres;

(ii)    the rapid aging of the existing workforce – over half of the current health workforce will retire within a decade;

(iii)   the expanding demand for services over the next 10 to 20 years due to sustained increase of the population.

• The National Headcount Survey in 2009 shows that the size of the health workforce financed by the public sector has grown from 10,791 in 1998 to 13,063 in 2009. Since 2004, however, the pace of growth has slowed down markedly. The number of nurses, for example, dropped from 3,980 in 2004 to 3,618 in 2009.

• To respond to the health workforce crisis, the PNG government’s needs to deal with:

(i)    the immediate supply-side crisis (quantity);

(ii)    the qualitative side, including preservice and in-service training (especially for emergency obstetric care for existing staff);

(iii)   incentives to ensure staff are able to be deployed where needed, particularly in rural areas which is home to 80 percent of the population.

• Armed with information of supply and demand, the report provides five scenarios to draw out the implications for each health cadre and for all service delivery staff, including affordability. The five scenarios vary from no change in existing supply capacity to four alternative scenarios with supply adjusted to meet the postulated demand.

• The scenario most recommended envisages a new mix of direct service-delivery staff, which is not only affordable but also responds to the demand requirements for staff from the health system while leaving space in the recurrent health budget to boost quality. This scenario is driven by: (i) the growth in the resource envelope likely to be available for health and service-delivery staff; and (ii) the feasibility and speed with which preservice training can be ramped up to meet the demands of workforce attrition and the needs of a growing population.

PNG minister says conjugal bail will curb sex crimes

By ABC Papua New Guinea correspondent Liam Fox

Papua New Guinea's only female minister says some prisoners should be released on bail to have sex with their wives to reduce sex crimes.

Loujaya Toni, the minister for religion, youth and community development, has drawn a link between prison breaks and sexual assaults.
In a statement, she says when men escape after being locked up and deprived of sex they will "find a female … to vent their sexual aggression".
Ms Toni says the solution is to release low and medium-security prisoners on weekend conjugal visits in order to "prevent rising levels of sexual frustration".
She also says high-risk prisoners should be injected with drugs to "lower their sexual aggressiveness".
Her comments have been widely panned on social media sites.
Ms Toni declined an interview with the ABC.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce departs PNG

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNOR-GENERAL Quentin Bryce has departed Papua New Guinea, ending a five-day state visit to the Pacific Island nation.

During her last day, Ms Bryce visited a library charity, Buk Bilong Pikinini, at the university of PNG in Port Moresby and announced the opening of a mobile library funded in partnership with Make a Mark Australia.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce has departed Papua New Guinea following a five-day state visit.

Buk Bilong Pikinini supplements the education of some PNG children through a library network in the rugged and infrastructure poor nation.
A planned trip south to Milne Bay was cancelled when a storm and poor visibility prevented the Army C-130 Hercules from landing, forcing Ms Bryce and her entourage back to Port Moresby.
It was the only hiccup in an otherwise busy week.
While in PNG Ms Bryce took part in Anzac Day commemorations around the country, as well as attending a women's roundtable discussion at Parliament House.
On Tuesday Ms Bryce paid her respects to Australian soldiers killed during the first and second world wars in Rabaul in East New Britain.
On Anzac Day she attended a dawn service in Port Moresby before flying to memorial services in Isurava and Kokoda.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/governor-general-quentin-bryce-departs-png/story-e6frfkui-1226630262354#ixzz2ReCFVZln

Black Cat trek recalls epic battles

By Kerri-Ann O'Sullivan

Special journey: Blaxland MP Jason Clare at the Australian War Museum for the launch of the 2013 Mateship Trek.

BLAXLAND MP Jason Clare will host the Mateship Trek in Papua New Guinea this Anzac Day.
Mr Clare is walking the Black Cat Track from Wau to Salamaua in Papua New Guinea with a group of Australians to commemorate the 70th anniversary of World War II campaigns in the area.
The Mateship Trek is a bipartisan program established four years ago to bring together young Australians from different backgrounds to learn about each other, their potential and Australian military history.
The trek will conclude with a dawn service at the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Lae, where about 2800 men and women have been laid to rest. Almost 700 were killed in action on or around the Black Cat Track.
In January 1943, Australian forces defended the Wau airstrip against the Japanese.
On Anzac Day the order was given to surge towards Salamaua across what became known as the bloody ranges of northern New Guinea. Salamaua was taken by the Allies on September 11, 1943.
"The story of Kokoda is well known. Unfortunately, the heroic efforts of the Australian soldiers on the Black Cat Track a few months later have been largely forgotten," Mr Clare said.
"We need to fix this.
"That's what this trek is about. Walking in the footsteps of Australian soldiers, honouring them, learning their stories and making a commitment to live a life worthy of the sacrifices they made for us."
The Mateship Treks are held every two years.
The first, in 2009, was along the Kokoda Track. In 2011 the group retraced the path of the World War II prisoners of war in Borneo during the Sandakan Death March.

How a Tobruk Rat turned Pacific hero

AAP

NEIL Russell is turning 96 next month and he needs a walking stick to get around, but this extraordinary digger was on the winning side in two of the toughest WWII campaigns in the Middle East and the Pacific.

Captain Russell is one of a handful of surviving Rats of Tobruk, who successfully defended the crucial Libyan port and gave the German forces their first major setback of the war in 1941.
With little time to enjoy the victory, however, he was shipped off to Papua New Guinea, where he played his part in delivering the first blow to the advancing Japanese forces.
As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, he helped stop the Japanese from taking Port Moresby in the 1942 Battle of Milne Bay.
He was made a captain and after the war awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal - the second highest medal for valour behind the Victoria Cross.
The Brisbane resident, who turns 96 on May 18, says when the order came to fix bayonets and charge, his company "stormed the enemy stronghold".

"And the Japs shot off like a Bondi tram," he said.
His son Doug says his father's dry Aussie humour helped him deal with stressful, life-threatening moments.
"During the heat of battle, someone said to him, 'What's the time?'" he said.
"He said, 'Time for a Capstan' (a brand of popular cigarettes at the time)."
Capt Russell will take part in the Anzac Day march through Brisbane today from 10am (AEST).
The march will start at the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets.

Hidden Valley a problem child — Newcrest CEO

by Allan Seccombe, 24 April 2013, 10:29

THE Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea was a "problem child" and three key areas had come under focus to bring costs down, Greg Robinson, CEO of Australia's Newcrest Mining, which shares the project with Harmony Gold, said yon Tuesday."Hidden Valley is our problem child on a negative cash flow basis to us and we continue to see poor results," Mr Robinson said during a presentation on Newcrest's March-quarter results. Newcrest is Australia's largest gold miner and has guided the market to expect output of 2-million ounces to 2.15-million ounces of gold for this financial year.
Like its peers in South Africa, Newcrest is struggling with the fall in the gold price, strong Australian and Papua New Guinea currencies and rising costs. It has already cut 150 jobs.
Newcrest shares Hidden Valley with Harmony as well as the Wafi-Golpu exploration project that promises to be a large copper and gold mine.
Hidden Valley produced 18,988oz of gold for Newcrest, and Harmony will report similar results when it releases its third-quarter results on May 3. Hidden Valley produced 20,649oz for Newcrest in the December quarter. Harmony declined to comment on Mr Robinson's view, citing a closed period ahead of releasing its own results.
Hidden Valley's cash cost in the March quarter, which included production of 205,651oz of silver, was A$1,790/oz, up from A$1,584 in the previous quarter.
Mr Robinson said the partners were addressing the continuing problems at Hidden Valley, with them taking delivery of a primary crusher in May instead of this month, as had been expected. This would allow the mine to ramp up production from a high-grade part of the mine using conveyor belts to move the ore to the processing plant instead of relying on an expensive trucking option.
"It's a big priority," Mr Robinson said. Mine management was looking at ways to improve metal recoveries at the plant and it had brought in an independent operational review team to reduce costs by between 20% and 30% in the "very short term".
"We will continue to review the viability of this operation in particular after the primary crusher is in place and that we've taken the appropriate steps. We hope once we've done those, we'll have this thing back in a reasonable return profile ."
With Newcrest becoming "stingy" with its capital, analysts quizzed Mr Robinson about Wafi-Golpu, a $4.9bn project that has attracted criticism for Harmony from some analysts who argue it should focus on returning capital to shareholders rather than spend billions of rand on this project.

G-G attends Anzac dawn service in PNG

AAP

GOVERNOR-GENERAL Quentin Bryce has paid her respects to current and former Australian soldiers at an Anzac Day service at Papua New Guinea's Bomana war cemetery.

At today'smorning's ceremony, Ms Bryce was joined by PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Australian High Commissioner to PNG Deborah Stokes, as well as her PNG counterpart Sir Michael Ogio.
More than 2, 000 people armed with glow sticks crowded into Bomana, located about 19km outside of Port Moresby.
"Wherever we come from and wherever we go, this is a day that gives pause and silence to our journey," Ms Bryce said in a short speech.
"A moment to remember the Australian soldiers, merchant navy men and airmen - and members of the Papua New Guinea local forces - who died defending this territory and ours.
"The tranquility of this clearing belies the desperate, bloody confrontations of the Kokoda campaign that took place beyond."
Bomana is final testing place to more than 3,000 soldiers killed serving in Papua New Guniea.
Australia and PNG formed close ties during World War II, with Australian soldiers being aided by locals known as Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.
Ms Bryce will later fly to Isurava and Kokoda to pay her respects at memorials in both locations.
Anzac Day will mark the fourth day of Ms Bryce's five-day state visit to PNG.