Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Hon. Rainbo Paita told Parliament yesterday (7th of September 2021) that the Marape Basil Government will commit K50 million in the 2022 budget for the completion of a world class Cancer facility in Port Moresby General Hospital while responding to questions raised by Member for Yanguru Sausia Hon. Richard Maru.
“We are all aware that cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths in our country. The latest figures show that up to 7000 patients are dying every year from cancer which is curable if detected at an early stage. Our problem in the country has been that we have never built a modern world class facility with equipment to treat cancer of all sorts in the country,” said Hon. Maru during question time.
Minister Paita responded that “while it is captured in the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) to establish two world class facilities in the country, previous governments have swept it under the rug to instead build stadiums and roads that sometimes leads to no where.
“The Marape government is taking very serious steps in ensuring that the world class cancer facility is built by releasing a total funding of K20 Million in 2021. K10 million through the Department of National Planning and Monitoring and K10 Million through the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd.
“The K20 million is to utilise for the ongoing construction, in 2022, the Government will allocate a total of K50 million for the completion of this facility through the 2022 PIP budget for the completion of the facility that will be as good as facilities in Singapore or Australia.”
When contacted by Wepio Media, Minister Paita said that ‘’the government is in touch with the Chief Executive Officer of Port Moresby General Hospital Dr. Paki Molumi regarding this and we are aware that four students have been sent overseas to study in specific fields to operate the cancer treatment equipments.
Minister Paita acknowledged the hard work of the Board and Management of the Port Moresby General Hospital, especially the outstanding efforts of the CEO, Dr. Paki Molumi in putting the nation in this position to arrest the rising problem of cancer.
To back all this the government has passed amendment bills in Parliament to uplift the restrictions of the importation of radioactive atomic materials and the policy guidelines are already in place. This has paved the way for the importation of radioactive materials that will be stored and used for medical purposes in the new cancer facility.
The government has heard the cries of the people and is shaping to deliver this very important project. Specialist professors have also been brought in from overseas to develop curriculums at University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences specifically for cancer treatments.
When fully completed the Port Moresby General Hospital cancer facility will be one of the signature developments implemented under the Marape Basil Government. The struggle to seek medical treatments relating to cancer overseas will be a thing of the past.