While many people are celebrating Christmas, the medical staff at the Kokoda Memorial Hospital in the Oro province are hard at work trying to deal with the influx of patients during this festive period.
According to a senior medical staff Mrs. Alice Eroro, the hospital is seeing an influx of patients with injuries and the matter has been made worse with the shortage of medical drugs.
“We have a patient admitted with fractured bones along with cases of drunkards injured because of fighting on the streets,” she said.
Apart from the injuries, Mrs. Eroro said the hospital reported one death. It was a woman who was brought to the hospital after she collapsed.
She also said that another matter is that the hospital’s ambulance is at the workshop at the moment, meaning that it will be difficult for them to attend to cases. This has also put further stress on the hospital staff.
In terms of medical drug supplies, she said the issue is with the delay of medical supplies from the Lae medical center and as a result of this, the hospital is experiencing drug shortage.
Mrs. Eroro also confirmed that there is an outbreak of Diarrhea in the community and they are finding it difficult treating patients because of the shortage of intravenous fluids and others drugs at the hospital.
However, something good did happen at the Kokoda Memorial Hospital this festive period. Two babies were delivered, one on Friday at around nine o’clock in the morning and the other one in the early hours of this morning. Both babies weight 3 kilograms and are both well and with their mothers.