Overcrowding and inadequate facilities force displaced women to receive maternity care on the floor of PMGH, highlighting the deteriorating health system in Papua New Guinea (PNG) under the current government. Read the full reflective article by Dr. Glen Mola on 72 hours of continuous on call for emergencies in O&G at PMGH on Easter Weekend. Subscribe for more news updates and stories.
Critical State of Maternal and Newborn Healthcare at PMGH in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea.
By Dr. Glen Mola – Pacific STEMM
Completing 72 hours of continuous on call for emergencies in O&G at PMGH (maternal and newborn care) this Easter Weekend has caused me to reflect on a few things.
In other hospitals if a patient had to receive their medical care on the floor (because lack of bed space), it would be a reason to file an ”incident’ report to the hospital management. However, at PMGH maternity there are 10-30 patients whom we have provide health care for on the floor every day.
In fact in 2024 our records show that over 7000 women who came to PMGH for lifesaving supervised birthing services received at least part of their care on the floor – either in the admission area to the labor ward, in the birthing area itself or in the post natal (after the birth) ward.
Our senior doctors and midwives have reported this humiliating and degrading situation (both for the patients and the staff) to the PMGH management on so many occasions (including in our annual report), and on at least 2 occasions the management have come and actually seen the situation for themselves. We have not been quick to come to social media (FB) about this distressing issue, but after two years of struggling to deal with it through usual and official channels – where else does one go.?
In 2022 the Japanese government (JICA) offered a grant of ~K100m to PMGH to build a new ”perinatal centre”.
The plans for this new maternal and newborn care facility were developed over a period of 10 months by the womens’ doctors (O&G) specialists, newborn specialists (neonatologists), Obs anaesthesia specialists, midwives and senior nurses in conjunction with 3 teams of Japanese hospital planning and building specialists (architects, draftsmen, hospital building specialists and engineers) and reps from PMGH management and the NODH facilities branch.
This perinatal centre would not only have provided us with 24 additional full nursing care beds for post partum women who have needed operative births (caesareans etc.), or have serious medical problems or obstetrical problems associated with their pregnancies, but also a dedicated laboratory for the maternal and newborn care section of PMGH, an ICU to provide specialist tertiary care for women with very serious birthing complications and an ICU for newborns (NICU) as well.
However, the PMGH Hospital Board (on the advice of the CEO and PMGH management team) rejected the JICA K100m offer on the grounds that it ‘did not fit with their vision for the future development of PMGH’. This vision was later explained and to us; it was to ensconce maternal and newborn health care at PMGH in an 8 story tower (along with other 8 story towers for internal medicine, surgery and paediatrics) over on the west side of the PMGH campus (ie near the current morgue) and take over our expansive MacGregor wing (susumama) site to build a hotel and commercial shopping precinct.
The Japanese aid team estimated that it would take 12-18 months to build and equip the ‘new perinatal centre’ – this being the case it would be up and running today, and so this weekend (and every other day in 2025), we the staff of the MacGregor (susumama) wing of PMGH would not have had to provide medical care for 20+ women and newborns on the floor.
Last week there were so many women on the floor including the passage ways into the labor ward and up to the operating theatre and out into the ambulance vehicle bay outside the labor ward door, that the staff had to step over women in order to get into the labor ward – and also making it very difficult to wheel emergency trolleys carrying emergency cases to the operating theatre from the labor ward.
And this weekend I have had to counsel and console two mothers who lost their babies and the families of two young women who have died (at least partly) because of insufficient capacity and lack of space in our NCD health care facilities.
It is not just PMGH that is found wanting, but the whole of NCD health care systems. Not to mention the empty soap dispensers so that staff can’t wash their hands, no paper towels (so we dry out hands on our trousers), power points and lights that do not work (for months now) so we work in dimly lit birthing cubicles.
I have a feeling that this messenger will be clobbered tomorrow, but so be it.
Our maternity section nursing managers and O&G medical coordinators have done their best over the past 4-5 years, but things have not improved. One can’t just stay silent for years – I need to be able to sleep better at night (when I am not on duty!) instead of lying awake worrying about the state of health care for women in our national capital.
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By Dr. Glen Mola – Pacific STEMM
Completing 72 hours of continuous on call for emergencies in O&G at PMGH (maternal and newborn care) this Easter Weekend has caused me to reflect on a few things.
In other hospitals if a patient had to receive their medical care on the floor (because lack of bed space), it would be a reason to file an ”incident’ report to the hospital management. However, at PMGH maternity there are 10-30 patients whom we have provide health care for on the floor every day.
In fact in 2024 our records show that over 7000 women who came to PMGH for lifesaving supervised birthing services received at least part of their care on the floor – either in the admission area to the labor ward, in the birthing area itself or in the post natal (after the birth) ward.
Our senior doctors and midwives have reported this humiliating and degrading situation (both for the patients and the staff) to the PMGH management on so many occasions (including in our annual report), and on at least 2 occasions the management have come and actually seen the situation for themselves. We have not been quick to come to social media (FB) about this distressing issue, but after two years of struggling to deal with it through usual and official channels – where else does one go.?
In 2022 the Japanese government (JICA) offered a grant of ~K100m to PMGH to build a new ”perinatal centre”.
The plans for this new maternal and newborn care facility were developed over a period of 10 months by the womens’ doctors (O&G) specialists, newborn specialists (neonatologists), Obs anaesthesia specialists, midwives and senior nurses in conjunction with 3 teams of Japanese hospital planning and building specialists (architects, draftsmen, hospital building specialists and engineers) and reps from PMGH management and the NODH facilities branch.
This perinatal centre would not only have provided us with 24 additional full nursing care beds for post partum women who have needed operative births (caesareans etc.), or have serious medical problems or obstetrical problems associated with their pregnancies, but also a dedicated laboratory for the maternal and newborn care section of PMGH, an ICU to provide specialist tertiary care for women with very serious birthing complications and an ICU for newborns (NICU) as well.
However, the PMGH Hospital Board (on the advice of the CEO and PMGH management team) rejected the JICA K100m offer on the grounds that it ‘did not fit with their vision for the future development of PMGH’. This vision was later explained and to us; it was to ensconce maternal and newborn health care at PMGH in an 8 story tower (along with other 8 story towers for internal medicine, surgery and paediatrics) over on the west side of the PMGH campus (ie near the current morgue) and take over our expansive MacGregor wing (susumama) site to build a hotel and commercial shopping precinct.
The Japanese aid team estimated that it would take 12-18 months to build and equip the ‘new perinatal centre’ – this being the case it would be up and running today, and so this weekend (and every other day in 2025), we the staff of the MacGregor (susumama) wing of PMGH would not have had to provide medical care for 20+ women and newborns on the floor.
Last week there were so many women on the floor including the passage ways into the labor ward and up to the operating theatre and out into the ambulance vehicle bay outside the labor ward door, that the staff had to step over women in order to get into the labor ward – and also making it very difficult to wheel emergency trolleys carrying emergency cases to the operating theatre from the labor ward.
And this weekend I have had to counsel and console two mothers who lost their babies and the families of two young women who have died (at least partly) because of insufficient capacity and lack of space in our NCD health care facilities.
It is not just PMGH that is found wanting, but the whole of NCD health care systems. Not to mention the empty soap dispensers so that staff can’t wash their hands, no paper towels (so we dry out hands on our trousers), power points and lights that do not work (for months now) so we work in dimly lit birthing cubicles.
I have a feeling that this messenger will be clobbered tomorrow, but so be it.
Our maternity section nursing managers and O&G medical coordinators have done their best over the past 4-5 years, but things have not improved. One can’t just stay silent for years – I need to be able to sleep better at night (when I am not on duty!) instead of lying awake worrying about the state of health care for women in our national capital.
