The National Fisheries Authority, Papua New Guinea – NFA is supporting Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) with a funding of K10 million to establish a kidney center after both parties signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) recently.
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is one of the five (5) leading diseases that contribute to the admissions and deaths of patients at PMGH and building this kidney center will ensure all kidney services including dialysis and kidney transplant is provided for the people of Papua New Guinea and also Pacific Island nations.
Managing director Mr. Justin Ilakini said the National Fisheries Authority is honoured to be contributing to the welfare of the people of Papua New Guinea through this project.
Mr. Ilakini said the NFA has been supporting hospitals and health centres over the years including a recent donation of K60, 000.00 to the PNG Kidney Foundation, but he believed that they could do more for the health sector.
Mr. Ilakini said after receiving a proposal from PMGH chief executive officer Dr. Paki Molumi for assistance to establish the kidney center project, he decided to take the proposal to the NFA Board for deliberation.
“I eventually took it to the NFA Board on their last Fisheries Board meeting for 2022 and they unanimously approved it,” said Mr. Ilakini.
“For NFA, through the Minister (for Fisheries and Marine Resources), we’d like to see that our assistance through the signing of this MOA will eventually translate to one day seeing our very own people getting that kidney transplant in-country.”
Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Hon. Jelta Wong, formerly the Minister for Health & HIV/AIDS himself, said that this is the first time that the country would advance its kidney services.
“The Kidney Foundation has been around for a long time but we’ve never advanced to a stage where we can actually start treating people with kidney disease and dialysis, all this, all in one”, said Minister Wong.
“It’s a very expensive exercise. Today, for us it’s historical and I thank the Board and Management of NFA for having this vision to make sure that the health services that we provide in our country is adequately funded,” stressed Minister Wong.
Minister for Health & HIV/AIDS Hon. Dr. Lino Tom said more and more people are dying from lifestyle diseases such as cancer, stroke, heart and kidney diseases, so this funding is a timely intervention to establish a centre that can provide a holistic kidney service.
“Unfortunately, the people who are more at risk from lifestyle diseases are the elites of this country. The people who are contributing meaningfully to this country are the ones that are succumbing to lifestyle diseases simply because of lifestyle changes,” said Minister Tom.
“When this project is complete, we would have addressed lifestyle diseases not totally but at least the major ones that we will need to address.”
Meanwhile, PMGH CEO Dr. Molumi said he hopes to achieve many of the expected outcomes once the program kicks off.
“We should be able to reduce the number of Chronic Kidney Disease patients diagnosed each year. We should be able to offer affordable kidney dialysis service and kidney transplant service,” said Dr. Molumi.
Dr. Molumi said investing in health is not only a social contribution but an economic one to drive medical tourism in the country.
“We should be able to attract our Pacific neighbors to seek treatment here so that we can grow our economy…when we drive medical tourism, and that’s a direction we want to go,” said Dr. Molumi.
Dr Molumi highlighted that this is a big investment in the health sector and he urged both Ministers to make sure that this Kidney program is sustained and that both Ministers including Port Moresby General hospital can deliver the objectives and the outcome of the MOU that was signed.