HEALTH PATROL TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Story by Mandy Glass. Photos by Dr Simon Ganal

The last week of April 2021 also saw the launch of a renewed partnership with the Lutheran Health Services in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, and with it we are hoping to establish another regular aerial health patrol project out of Wasu. Wasu is the airstrip connecting the Etep Rural Hospital which is nestled uphill from Wasu airstrip and serving a population of 150,000 people in the area.

“We are all excited and ‘loaded’ for the first MAF-supported Health Patrol,” stated Dr Simon Ganal, Medical Officer at Etep Rural Hospital. “From my perspective, Sapmanga is one of the very best locations to start this project to improve primary healthcare in one of the most rural parts of Morobe and PNG.”

Brad Venter, one of the pilots, flew the first of the Morobe clinic patrols on 26 April 2021. He shared, “This has been a work in progress with Dr Simon Ganal and the Lutheran hospital in Etep for over a year. We flew a team of seven health workers, including Simon, to Sapmanga where they will work in the community to deal with medical cases, do health training and vaccinations.”

Preparing the plane for flight, Brad Venter flies in with the medical team.

“They will also get an idea of the overall medical situation to help with planning for transfers of critical medical cases to the Etep hospital before they become medevacs,” continued Brad. “This is also a great opportunity to share the gospel message in the community!” Dr Simon lead a team consisting of a nursing officer and a midwife, two Health Extension Officers who are trained to deliver medical and administrative healthcare in rural areas, a dentist, and a Residential Medical Officer.

The team, in cooperation with five local Community Health Workers were able to do 136 medical consultations, including antenatal care, coughs and other respiratory illnesses, skin diseases, pelvic inflammatory diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. During the clinics, the first COVID-19 case was detected via antigene testing. Dr Simon and his team also did five practical procedures and 23 immunisations. Besides that, they gave health awareness on seven different topics: cancer and screening, COVID-19, dental hygiene, family planning, malaria, tuberculosis, general hygiene and lifestyle, and estimate that about 200 people attended the health education.

Flying back to Wasu after three days of health clinics and awareness at Sapmanga, two critically ill patients were also airlifted for further treatment at the Etep Hospital.

EXCITEMENT, MOTIVATION AND A VISION TO CONTINUE

“After returning to Etep Rural Hospital, we were filled with excitement, motivation and a lot more stories to tell,” summarised Dr Simon. “Outreaches are always special to us health workers,” he continued. “The conditions are raw and difficult, but you can’t find more medically sensible places to be. It motivates us to keep going after experiencing the needs and struggles at remote communities and at the same time being blessed ourselves by the hospitality and wonderful people out there.

The community was grateful and excited for the services provided.

“We hope that with this health patrol to Sapmanga we are planting a seed. A seed, that will steadily grow, and bring out an endless amount of fruits, so more seeds will drop down and grow plants on their own. We dream about a comprehensive programme, which allows us to provide frequent access to provide healthcare for remote communities and so to cooperate more frequently and more intentionally with the various aid posts and health centres in our catchment area. By this we can develop a highquality primary healthcare, which leads to a real game changing drift in the health sector.”

MAF’S PART AND PARTNERSHIPS EACH YEAR IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

MAF aircraft bring hope, healing, and physical and spiritual transformation through compassionate medical evacuation flights that serve the individuals and communities who live around the more than 150 airstrips MAF serves. Accomplishing this vision requires a team and strong partnerships; doctors, nurses, pilots, ground operations, flight operations, finance, IT, engineers, as well as individuals and organisations to help fund such flights.

To continue health patrol flights to more remote places in the Morobe Province would support preventive care to reduce the number of “emergency” cases and increase the overall health of communities through regular health surveillance. Satish continues, “MAF PNG took this opportunity to seek approval from the Morobe Government to fund this maiden health patrol to Sapmanga, to which they graciously concurred. Looking at the achievement, this is a beautiful illustration of a successful partnership, bringing hope, health and healing to the people living in remote Sapmanga using MAF as the facilitator.”

“This particular patrol to Sapmanga also exemplifies one of our MAF values – Partnership,” explains Satish Moka, MAF PNG’s Operations Director who was part of a team from MAF PNG, which has been working with the Morobe Provincial Government on how best MAF could help the isolated communities in the area and for MAF to return to the province for operations.

Safety measures and precautions agains COVID19 are taken very seriously by MAF.