Stillehavslandet på den østlige del af New Guinea oplever, at sundhedssystemet står foran et kollaps, da det meste af arbejdsstyrken nærmer sig pensionsalderen og der ingen er til at tage over – sundhedsvæsenet er i forvejen et af verdens dårligste.
PORT MORESBY, 14 March 2013 (IRIN): Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a Pacific country rich in natural resources, yet its health staffing levels are comparable to the world’s poorest countries due to a rapidly retiring force and lack of qualified replacements.
“If we do not do anything about our ageing workforce quickly, the health system may collapse,” former health minister Jamie Maxton Graham told parliament in 2012.
Despite repeated warnings of the shortage, first at a 2002 national health conference, again in 2008 during a government health resources forum, and most recently by a 2011 World Bank report, the country still faces what the government calls a “drastic” health worker shortage.
The World Bank report predicted a large decline in the “backbone of rural service delivery” (nurses and midwives (jordemødre)) – by up to half.
All this is unfolding in a mostly rural half-island of seven million residents where the closest health clinic might be hours by boat, foot, or at best, local transport, from the village, said Miriam Lovai, former head of the national midwife association.
Rural health care is especially threatened, noted 2011 field research led by Care Australia and the Australian National University. Twice as many infants and three times as many children under five die in rural areas than urban ones, according to the country’s latest census in 2000.
Two years since the Bank’s “call to action” report, PNG’s health workforce (mostly nurses and midwives) is dwindling through retirement or attrition while the country continues fighting high malnutrition rates in remote highland communities, as well as high infant and child mortality (57 and 75 per 1.000 live births, respectively).
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