The Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority recently celebrated its 60th Anniversary at the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital.
The event was marked with the official opening of its brand new K5 million state-of-the-art radiology unit funded by funded by Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL), three brand new dental chairs funded by Eagle Foundation and three new vehicles consisting of a bus and 10 Seater for the hospital and an ambulance for Miti Ku Health Centre in Dei District donated by the Western Highlands Provincial Government under the leadership of Governor Wai Rapa.
Another significant milestone was the name being changed from Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital to Mt Hagen Provincial Specialist Hospital.
During the celebration last week Friday a long serving retired staff of the hospital John Umba said that he worked with the hospital for almost 50 years and since then he has seen a lot of changes.
“When I first came to the hospital in 1979, most of the houses including the staff houses were made from bush materials.”
“Back then we worked under Medical Superintendents now we call them Chief Executive Officers,” said Mr Umba.
Mr Umba said that the public outpatient is now the current theatre.
“The current outpatient was built sometime later by the government.”
“A lot has changed in terms of infrastructure and development and equipment and materials for patient care,” said Mr Umba.
Mr Umba recalls attending to patients with no mask or gloves but just his bare hands.
“I stitched cuts and wounds with my bare hands, I attended to patients with critical conditions without masks. I wasn’t afraid to contract HIV/AIDS or TB, I did my job with a pure heart to serve my patients,” said Mr Umba.
Mr Umba said that today medical practitioners have masks, gloves, sanitizers and all the equipment and materials they would need to do their jobs properly unlike before.
He urged all the specialists who will be responsible to operate the new machines to handle them with care.
WHPHA Acting and outgoing Chief Executive Officer Jane Holden said that 60 years ago on the 25th of March 1966, the honorable Sir Donald Cleland, the administrator opened the Western Highlands Community District Hospital making it one of the first government run community hospitals in the highlands region.
“60 years on we are still serving and in our 60th year we are preparing and ready for the future in the next 60 years.”
“We have been the best performing Provincial Health Authority (PHA) in 2023 and 2024 and we are waiting for the 2025 results but we are confident we will be on the top group,” said Ms Holden.
Ms Holden also mentioned that Hagen Central District has performed as the top district out of all 92 districts in the country within the same period.
“This is not achieved by one person but it was a team effort. This was all done through the performance, time and work put in by all the staff.”
Ms Holden added that WHPHA has significantly contributed to the designed of the current health system. It has launched the first elimination of cervical cancer program in the country and screened 33 000 women and treated them and vaccinated 25, 400 girls aged between 9 and 18, the only province in the country to do so.
She proudly stated that WHPHA is now leading the country with its health standards.National Department of Health Secretary Pascoe Kase congratulated WHPHA for being a success story for many PHAs across PNG.
Original source: pg