The Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology School of Medical and Health Sciences, University of PNG, Professor Doctor Glen Mola, recently addressed the critical challenges faced by mothers at the Maternity Ward at Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) as well as the lack of medical care they received whilst being attended to.
After completing 72 hours of continuous on call for emergencies in Obstetrics and Gynecology (O&G) at PMGH during the Easter weekend, Professor Mola spoke on the struggles over at the maternity ward where there are ten to thirty patients who have received health care for on the floor every day.
Records have also shown that over 7, 000 women who go to PMGH for life-saving supervised birthing services receive at least part of their care on the floor; either in the admission area to the labor ward, in the birthing area itself or in the post-natal (after birth) ward.
“Our senior doctors and midwives have reported this degrading situation (both for the patients and the staff) to the PMGH management on so many occasions, including in our annual report, and on at least two occasions, the management have come and actually seen the situation for themselves.”
In 2022, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); the independent institution of the Government of Japan, offered a grant of K100 million to PMGH to build a new ‘perinatal center.’
The plans for this new maternal and newborn care facility were developed over a period of ten months by the women’s doctors (O&G) specialists, newborn specialists (neonatologists), obstetrics anesthesia specialists, midwives and senior nurses in conjunction with three teams of Japanese hospital planning and building specialists including, architects, draftsmen, hospital building specialists and engineers and representatives from PMGH management and the National Department of Health (NDoH) facilities branch.
“This perinatal center would not only have provided us with 24 additional full nursing care beds for post-partum women who have needed operative births such as caesareans or have serious medical problems or obstetrical problems associated with their pregnancies, but also a dedicated laboratory for the maternal and newborn care section as well as an ICU to provide specialist tertiary care for women with very serious birthing complications and an ICU for newborns (NICU).”
However, Professor Mola stated that the PMGH Hospital Board with the advice from the Chief Executive Officer and PMGH management team, rejected the JICA K100m offer on the grounds that it ‘did not fit with their vision for the future development of PMGH’.
He said that this vision was later explained to them that it was to establish a maternal and newborn health care at PMGH in an eight-story tower along with other eight story towers for internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics over on the west side of the PMGH campus and take over the expansive MacGregor wing (Susumama) site to build a hotel and commercial shopping precinct.
“The Japanese aid team estimated that it would take 12-18 months to build and equip the new perinatal center; this being the case it would be up and running today which would supposedly provide better medical care for women and newborns.
In addition, Professor Mola shared that in the previous week, there were so many women on the floor including the passageways into the labor ward and up to the operating theatre and out into the ambulance vehicle bay outside the labor ward door.
This causing hospital staff to step over women in order to get into the labor ward also making it very difficult to wheel emergency trolleys carrying emergency cases to the operating theatre from the labor ward.
“Not to mention the empty soap dispensers so that staff can’t wash their hands, no paper towels so we dry out hands on our trousers, power points and lights that do not work for months now so we work in dimly lit birthing cubicles.”
“This weekend alone, I have had to counsel and console two mothers who lost their babies and the families of two young women who have died because of insufficient capacity and lack of space in our NCD health care facilities.”
Furthermore, Professor Mola commended the maternity section nursing managers and O&G medical coordinators who have done their best over the past four to five years though things have not improved.