Doctors and the UPNG Medical School So far over the years, and quite recently, many comments and newspaper articles have featured our major hospitals as well as our district hospitals as without Doctors. The most affected department in these hospitals is the Accident and Emergency Department. Not only that, there are other departments and specialist units that lacked enough number of qualified specialist doctors. About a week or two weeks ago, The Post Courier had featured some articles about patient waiting in queue at the A and E for hours to be seen by an A&E doctor. Just today and yesterday, The Post Courier again featured some stories and articles about patient dying while waiting for specialist A&E doctors at the ANGAU General Hospital to be seen. A few days ago, again, the Post Courier highlighted that there is only one A&E doctor at ANGAU who is threatening to resign because of overwork, stress and pressure and also his position as a doctor there is not fixed. Not only ANGAU. This is happening all over the country in our major referral hospitals. In early September this year during the Medical Symposium up at Goroka, the esteemed Professor here at the UPNG Medical School, Professor Sir Isi Kevau has highlighted that the Medical School needs to be expanded, so that more students can be enrolled into the MBBS program currently offered here at the ONLY Medical School in this Country, the UPNG Medical School. Right now, and since the PBL program was introduced in the year 2000, only 50 students are admitted into the MBBS program as second year medical students every year. After four years of Medical School, about 45 graduate as doctors, but not as specialist doctors. This means that they have to undergo post graduate studies before they are considered specialist doctors. So to make it short, it takes about 4 to 7 years to have a specialist doctor working in our general hospitals in the country as a consultant, or simply, a Medical Doctor. Within this period, there will be about one million babies born into this country based on the current population growth rate. As more and more people migrate to our towns and cities, and the changes in lifestyle that goes with it, the need for specialist doctors and specialist clinics to serve our people and certain group of our population such as women and children will rise, and in fact, the need is already being felt by the people of this great country. Apart from the A&E department, The O&G clinic here at Port Moresby General Hospital is always busy every clinic days for mothers as well as the O&G wards. The Urban clinics are always full with mothers and babies for their clinic appointments. The Labor Ward here at the PMGH is always busy every day, 24 hours. The Nursery and the Post Natal wards are always busy and full to capacity, only to be served by two or three doctors in each section every day without proper rest. The specialist clinics are always full to capacity every day of the week. This is not only happening here at PMGH, but right across the country as indicated in the featured articles in the Post Courier. For example, the Oncology department at ANGAU General Hospital which only has one Oncologist, who is serving the entire country. To make it short, the population is increasing at a very fast rate, and the need for medical doctors here in this country is also increasing at a very fast rate, but the school that produces our medical doctors is not expanding to meet this increasing demand. Instead, it has remained the same since 1969. The infrastructures built in the 1960s (as shown in the photographs) are still there without any new buildings to cater for the increase in the intakes of students into the MBBS program. The same 5 tutorial rooms that caters for the second and third years MBBS programs since the 1970s are still there without any expansion. The 4th and 5th years have to use the lawns in front of the School Administration office for their tutorials every tutorial sessions. This has been happening since 1990s. The anatomy, the physiology and the biochemistry laboratories are still there without any work done to expand them. The specimens used for anatomy and pathology classes from the 1970s are still in use today. All of them are not in a better shape for study purposes today. When it rains, all the tutorial rooms on the ground floor are always flooded with rain water, so some tutorials have to be delayed or worse, cancelled. The Yaram, SQ and MQ halls of MBBS resident students have not been expanded since they were built in the 1960s. Since 2007, the MQ halls of Residents for the 4th and 5th Year MBBS students are now being taken over by Post Graduate Students and even some university staff, thus forcing the Undergraduates to fight for the remaining rooms, or worse, be a day student, which is too hard for a Medical Student. The way forward as elaborated by Professor Kevau is this: Expand the UPNG Medical School by building more tutorial rooms for the MBBS program, build bigger lecture rooms for the MBBS programs, more dormitories for the MBBS students and expand the size of the laboratories for Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Microbiology. When we expand our infrastructures, we can increase the number of intakes into the MBBS program, then we will have about 80 to 90 students graduating every year to meet the demand instead of the usual 40 or 45 since the 1970s. Right now, we will go nowhere as it stands because we do not have the needed infrastructures in place. Instead of building a new university, let us expand the UPNG Medical School to cater for the demand because we have the best mentors here in the likes of Professor Glen Mola, Professor John Vince, Professor Nakapi Tefuarani, Professor Sir Isi Kevau, Professor Teutulohi Matainaho, Professor Victor Temple, Doctor David Linge, Doctor Ikau Kevau, Professor Amoa, Doctor Paulus Ripa, and many others who are taking a leading role in educating the next generation of Medical Doctors and mentors in this great country. IF we can use billions of Kina to build the stadiums and sporting venues to cater for a 2 weeks sporting event that does not benefit the entire population of this great country, I believe we have enough to spend in something that is a matter of death and life for the entire population of this great and beautiful country of ours. That is all from me for today. Over to you Mr. Peter ONeill, Mr. Michael Malabag, Mr. Malakai Tabar, and the politicians and bureaucrats here at Waigani. Let us all work together for the common good of our people. God Bless PNG. Note: The views in this article does not in any way represent the views of the UPNG Administration and its staff, the UPNG Medical School Administration and its Staff, the UPNG Medical School Students, the UPNG Students as a whole, and any General Hospitals as mentioned. It is totally my own.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 21:58:21 +0000
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