Dead-end future for too many Papua New Guineans

From the Post Courier editorial

We have brought some gripping accounts of human tragedy into the pages of the Post-Courier in recent times. These are true stories of the growth of deadly illness in people and their efforts to find help in their time of desperation.

These are the dilemmas of life for average Papua New Guineans, those who are afflicted with life-shortening diseases and are finding out how difficult it can be to find a way through. The victims in these situations usually encounter medical experts who tell them their only hope is to go to another country where machines and expertise exist to help them.Almost inevitably, they find out that such a course of action to save their life or to prolong it for a lengthy time will cost K100,000 or more.

Among many other sick patients, Saka Tauloi (above) is 54 and suffers from Hodgkins lymphoma or commonly known as Hodgkins disease and she needs urgent treatment overseas

In most cases, they have no hope of finding that amount. The paralysing truth that is obvious to many is that they need to go overseas quickly, within months or weeks, for the salvation to work.Very, very few Papua New Guineans can scrape up the money to do that.Many resign themselves to dying in a short time.

Their nearest and dearest family members go through mental torture, once they know the grim scenario. To see your loved one going through physical pain and knowing there is no hope can be a dreadful thing for people to cope with. That is when people start to feel bitter about the public health system in our country.

We feel for many professionals, including Health Secretary Dr Clement Malau, who complained publicly in recent weeks about the tendency for people to recite the bad side of health instead of giving the positive developments a go.

We in the media realise that we cannot be too critical of health professionals who are attempting to do good things, but we are critical of the government system that leaves those professionals with woefully inadequate resources to help our people. After a decade or two of struggle to get the sole cancer unit going again, we hear that the effort is still plagued by shortcomings of funding and staffing.

In the meantime, those who can find K100,000 or more, are jumping on the plane to Singapore or Brisbane. We don’t blame those individuals for being able to do so. But we do resent those in positions of power who do so, while those who pay their salaries, the taxpayers, are unable to make that flight.

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