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Secretary's Press Statement
Christmas and New Year Message
There is hope in the Health Sector
Christmas and New Year periods are the seasons where traditionally, people and societies all over talk of the past year, talk of hope, rebuilding, and doing things differently and innovatively for better outcomes of the things we do.
In the Department of Health we are rekindling our hope, there is hope for better health for everyone living in this country, for us and for our children.
In 2009 we had many ups and downs. It is like moving on a rollercoaster ride, we have moments where we laugh and we have moments where we cry. At the same time 2009 has been very enlightening for most of us to come to know a little bit more of health in the country.
It is my third year as Secretary of Health and during the period we have discussed a lot of things in health on how we can do things a little bit different and better. While doing this we have come to acknowledging and reconfirming the fact that the health systems have broken down.
Certain things that are becoming obvious are as follows.
- Infrastructure is still lacking in rural areas;
- Drug supply system, distribution and management needs strengthening;
- Funding that does not reflect growth in population, noting very clearly that health has been under funded over the years;
- Set up in the bureaucratic process not conducive to address priorities of Government in areas of education, health, infrastructure and economic development.
We have seen deterioration in health morals of our people becoming evident by the outbreak of cholera, a disease we have not seen in the country before but because of hygiene practices and deterioration of healthy behavior we are now experiencing a disease that occurs among over crowded, very poor living conditions, such as those found in many of the African and Asian countries.
Our experience in health not having access to trust funds managed by the National Department of Planning is a classical example of why we believe the Government bureaucratic structure is inappropriate to ensure that health priorities are addressed equitably and effectively by the health sector.
Even in the mist of these challenges we want to bring a message of hope to the people of Papua New Guinea that we, in the National Department of Health, are serious in addressing the challenges we are facing. This hope, we believe, can be demonstrated by the;
- Appointment of the new Senior Executive Management of the Department,
- Restructure of the Department,
- Implementation of the three-year Corporate Plan of the Department,
- The development of the new National Health Plan ( 2010 – 2020),
- Improved dialogue with all our health worker unions,
- Focusing on human resources management, and
- Our on going commitment to primary health care and services delivery to rural majority and urban poor,
Key achievement so far includes the single health authority where three provinces signed to implement. Under this arrangement the authority is responsible for human resources and finance at the provincial levels to ensure services are delivered to all citizens of the country.
The drafting of the new 10-year National Health Plan (2011 – 2010) is now underway. It is going to be a single policy document capturing all ideas contributed by the 21 provinces and the new plan, is the hope, for better health in Papua New Guinea.
During this festive period, on behalf of the Health Department and my senior executives, wish you and everyone healthy celebrations and looking forward to working with you in 2010.
God bless Papua New Guinea.
Dr Clement Malau
Secretary