Joseph Angli: Real cost Health Care in rural PNG

The true cost of health service delivery in rural PNG does not necessarily measured in monetary terms along. Very detailed, comprehensive public expenditure framework policies have been passed, detailing very well the amount to be spent on health per capita but if they are not achievable than its a waste of resources pumped into developing such policies. If you talk to a rural villager but all these stuff he/she will never understand you well. All they want is the tangible result of the policies.

So what does it take to reach the marginalised, rural population of PNG? It costs the hard working health personnel at the forefront of health service delivery the commitment, the passion, the determination and the conviction to travel beyond their comfort zones, to struggle through rugged, harsh, unwelcoming terrain of PNG to reach these people and administer the basic yet vital health care services. Often all of their struggles and hard work go unnoticed and unrecorded.

Currently on the ground, the surviving health facilities and staff reaching and serving the peripherals of PNG are the health services operated by Christian Health Services, PNG, an overarching governing body of all Church Health Agencies in PNG but reports to National Department of Health. Most of these health facilities are dated back before the Second World War and they were built by early missionaries. They have contributed a lot to the history and development of modern Papua New Guinea.

Health service delivery in PNG after Independence was in a total state of chaos leading to poor health indicators. This trend follows the introduction of Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government as the government's attempt to introduce the concept of Decentralisation. The health service then after independence is a complicated, mixture of delegated and transferred roles and responsibilities between the three levels of government. As a desperate attempt to rectify this situation, the government introduces National Health Administration Act, then Public Hospital Act and the recent one which is National Health Administration Act to unify health service delivery as One System.

Though it affects everyone providing health services, the most affected ones are the government health services. Most of their health facilities have closed, workers roaming around being paid for doing nothing and the list goes on.

So what would be the best, effective and innovative way of doing business in health this 21st century? We are and will always be accountable for not providing the necessary but vital health services to the people placed under our care.