Friday 8th October
It is after 5pm in the afternoon here at Goroka town and curfew has already started around this time.
The busy crowd quickly deserted the town before 4pm to escape from the curfew but not the real issue which has gripped the province in weeks, killing many as it continues to spread.
Back in the isolation wards at the Goroka Hospital, the crying, anguish, pain and agony echoes throughout the evening.
The sun sets behind the isolation ward, an indication of another night in the ward fighting for their lives.
A woman sits outside the isolation ward, looking towards the sunset as she weeps for a loved one she just lost to COVID-19.
Another family with their faces covered with charcoal say, they have waited two weeks to take their loved one home for burial but there are other dead bodies that are still being swabbed for COVID-19 so they wait.
Outside the morgue lies four coffins that relatives have put there for the health officers to place their dead loved ones in as they cannot go near the bodies.
An ambulance flashes its’ emergency lights and rushes in to the already crowded isolation ward with another patient that urgently needs oxygen.
A frontline health worker rushes out from one of the wards and tells the CEO of the hospital that they just ran out of oxygen and the patients are in distress begging for oxygen.
The frontline nurse looks worn out, drained and she’s about to cry as her eyes pace around the hospital area looking for any remaining oxygen cylinder that might still have some oxygen left.
This has been the scenario at the hospital day in day out since the beginning of September.
The COVID-19 surge has spread through the Eastern Highlands Province with great force overpowering the health workforce they have in the province.
The hospital has currently admitted more than 60 patients with all the beds at isolation ward and emergency ward all taken up by severe cases of COVID-19.
While the hospital is trying its’ best to handle the increased number of cases every day, the hospital management is faced with three challenges; they need more manpower, a constant supply of oxygen and more beds for the patients.
Chief Executive Officer for the hospital Dr Joseph Apa said 46% of their staff are old and at the retiring stage of their career, therefore the hospital’s staff on strength are unable to handle the number of patients that come into the hospital every day.
Dr Apa said they have recruited 53 staff on short term contracts in early March which costed the hospital K84,000 per fortnight but they will still recruit for this month as they need more manpower.
“We are recruiting another 50 short term contract staff for the hospital and another 50 staff for the districts health services which will cost us K84,000 per fortnight for both the hospital and the districts.”
Meanwhile the hospital still needs a constant supply of Oxygen to keep patients going until they recover.
The 60 patients admitted in the hospital use up to 240 oxygen cylinders in a day which is a huge demand and challenge the hospital is being faced with.
“We used up so much money on logistics to bring in the oxygen and it costs us K20,670 for nine oxygen cylinders, that’s how costly it is,” said Dr Apa.
Dr Apa also pointed out the need for more beds in the hospital given limited number of beds they now have which is 40 in the isolation ward and 20 in the Emergency Department.