PNG officials dodge blame over hospital power cut
Updated
A hospital in Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands had its power and telephone service cut for over 24 hours last week. PNG Power cut the power supply to Ialibu District Hospital after an accumulation of unpaid bills. Power has been restored, however the outage meant patients were turned away or referred to other hospitals, and thousands of vaccines had to be thrown out because refrigeration systems failed.
Presenter: Kate McPherson
Speaker: William Powi, Southern Highlands Provincial Administrator; Dr Youngpu Samo, Ialibu District Hospital medical superintendent; Sasa Zibe, Papua New Guinea's Health Minister
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MCPHERSON: Papua New Guinea's Ialibu district hospital had its power supply cut off last week and it was not restored for over 24 hours. During this time patients were turned away and thousands of vaccines spoiled because they could not be kept at the correct temperature. The power was cut due to unpaid bills reaching more than 90,000 kina, or $US33,000. The hospital's medical superintendent says the bills have accumulated over three or four years.
SAMO: More than 90,000 over the last three or four years, and I think it has been overlooked.
MCPHERSON: Dr Youngpu Samo says the vaccines which have to be thrown away were for children.
SAMO: Used to vaccinate children under five years and that included tuberculosis vaccines, tetanus vaccines, hepatitis vaccines. We really have to discard them, we can't use them again.
MCPHERSON: Dr Samo says many patients were turned away and they could not perform emergency procedures during the power outage.
SAMO: We are not even doing emergency things because we're afraid there might be casualties or there might be mortality and we want to avoid it, and we've referred them to many hospitals in Mount Hagen. It's a humanitarian disaster, I mean it's beyond our control. They can't come in, we can't do anything.
MCPHERSON: PNG provincial governments are responsible for the funding of their clinics and hospitals. The Southern Highlands Provincial Administrator William Powi says the provincial government's 2009 budget was delayed and this contributed to the hospital not having enough money to pay for the power bill.
POWI: Yes we got our budget approved pretty late, two weeks ago from treasury and as a result our first quarter we do not use any money in the first quarter and it's been suggested at the beginning of the second quarter that we had our funds open. So those monies have been released.
MCPHERSON: Mr Powi says he is appealing to the power company to consider the lives of patients before taking similar action again.
POWI: This is a rural hospital and I'm appealing to those service providers to take a bit of humanitarian stand because you're dealing with the lives of people.
MCPHERSON: Dr Youngpu Samo has made a submission to the provincial government to access funds allocated in the budget.
SAMO: We are still negotiating with them, I've given the provincial government a submission of 90,000 kina to be repaid immediately, as soon as possible. And the administrator was not available because when information from the hospital goes in it goes as far as the division and the director's level and it doesn't reach the hospital administrator.
MCPHERSON: Papua New Guinea's Health Minister Sasa Zibe says it is not his department's responsibility to ensure there is enough money to pay utility bills.
ZIBE: It is not only the duty of the health department but it also incumbent upon other government agencies to come and provide what is needed. Without the electricity, we do not control the electricity, it is controlled by another division.
MCPHERSON: There have been reports that some of the spoiled vaccines were donated through Australia's aid agency, AusAid, however a statement from AusAid in PNG says the vaccines in question were not procured by the Australian government.
