St Mary Medical Centre in Port Moresby finally re-opened its maternity ward and also opened its operating theatre as of November of last year, 2023. The maternity ward reopened after being closed for nearly two and a half years due to no gynecologists specialist available at the medical centre. It was then in September of last year that a female gynecologist and obstetrician, Doctor Gwenda Tabagua, finally came on board to work for St Mary after being asked by the previous gynecologist who had worked there for a short period of time, to apply for the gynecologist position. According to Dr Gwenda, she told PNGHAUSBUNG that the previous gynaecologist had only been working there for about two months however had taken up another job therefore, had reached out to Dr Gwenda informing her about the vacancy and was from there that she decided to apply in which she successfully took up the job. After coming on board, it then took a month for the maternity ward to undergo renovations and maintenance work before being able to operate again as well as give Dr Gwenda and her team time to get themselves together and prepare themselves before the ward’s reopening with support from the hospital board. “This is an affordable hospital compared to other private hospitals and clinics in the city and with that, the board has been working towards opening the maternity unit again to help those seek services that are easy for them to pay for.” Subsequently after a month’s work of maintenance and renovation, the ward finally opened in November and since then has so far seen a total of five deliveries that took place in the newly renovated ward. “In the month of November, we had two deliveries and in December have seen three deliveries.” “Currently at this time, we are only attending to easy and normal deliveries whereas for those who face or may face complications during their delivery, we quickly refer them to Port Moresby General Hospital where they have more than one specialist doctor that can be able to attend to them.” In addition, the maternity ward has been designed to be built in a family-oriented space where families can be able to visit their newest member of the family and this is what the staff and board of St Mary aim to create. The ward itself, contains a labour room with a self-contained bathroom and toilet, followed by a lounge area where the families can sit when they go to visit and also a post-natal room contained with four beds and four cribs each for the new born babies. Meanwhile, not only did the medical centre witness the reopening of the maternity ward in November but also saw the opening of their operating theatre as well. Dr Gwenda stated that as for the theatre, it only conducts and operates on minor cases such as bone surgery, paediatric surgery, men’s health surgery and other general minor surgeries. She also shared that she is eager to give back go her community the help they need especially after being away from the country for fifteen years since 2008 where she also served as a gynaecologist in Australia. Furthermore, St Mary is dedicated to providing affordable health care within NCD and has been in operation under the Catholic Health Services since 1998 in which was recognised by the Health Department and PNG Medical Board. The medical centre has then expanded over the years with services encompassing general outpatient, obstetric and gynaecology, surgery and point of care services.