St Mary’s Vunapope Hospital in Kokopo, East New Britain (ENB) province, recently received a donation of a new Digital X-ray machine funded by Caritas Australia through the National Catholic Church Health Services PNG.
The recent Commissioning and Handover of the X-ray machine was witnessed by official representatives from Caritas Australia, National Catholic Church Health Service Office, Kokopo Open Member, Hereman ToBaining Jnr, the Provincial Administration and other guests.
Speaking during the ceremony was Hospital Director Medical Services, Dr. Felix Diaku who thanked Caritas Australia for the big assistance, stating that this is a big achievement for the hospital and the province that should be recognized.
He said on behalf of the hospital and all the Catholic and government health facilities and the people of the province, they are thankful for the service as this is a milestone for the health service delivery in the province.
“The province has only two health centers that provide twenty- four- seven health service, which are Rabaul Provincial and St Mary’s Hospital. We are grateful and thankful to have this machine during this challenging times.”
He added that the hospital is fortunate to be the number eight hospital in the country to have this machine installed in their hospital.
“This machine is not only for St Mary’s, but for the people of the province and in the past the machine can cater for 30 to 40 patients in a day; however, with this new one can now cater 80 to 90 in a day, so there is a change there on how we do our diagnostic in terms of x-ray and imaging”.
Furthermore, there is already a satellite disk installed at the health facility which was purchased by the Rabaul Archdiocese as part of the requirement to run the service.
The hospital management also thanked those who helped in donating other machines such as Tropicana Limited.
The X-ray machine is currently install in the hospital and will be used once it is complete.
The total funding cost of the machine is K645, 000.