Chief Executive Officer of the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority, Dr. James Kintwa recently met with facility managers, DHOs, church health workers, NGOs and other senior staff and spelt out the way forward for the organization.
Dr. Kintwa who addressed the staff and partners at Hotel Kimininga in Mt Hagen also used the occasion to introduce the new Senior Executive Management Team which included Dr. John Kiap – Director Curative Health Services, Ms. Julie Bengi – Director Corporate Services and Mr. Norman Vakore – Director Public Health Services.
Dr. Kintwa told the staff that most of the work that had been done in the last two years had been mostly top level planning, putting our Corporate Plan together and planning for infrastructure development in all the seven districts of Western Highlands and Jiwaka Provinces.
He said churches had played a key role in delivering health services to our people along with our other partners such as CHAI, Susu Mamas, Marie Stopes and Anglicare and added that with God, WHPHA would move and deliver health services in a transparent and honest manner.
He told the staff that WHPHA’s key priority areas were Healthy Lifestyle, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (KRA 7), Maternal Health (KRA 5), Child Health (KRA 4), Partnership (KRA 2) and Health Systems Strengthening (KRA 3).
Dr. Kintwa said the organization’s performance in the last five years had not been good, especially in the areas of supervised deliveries in districts, antenatal services, malnutrition indicators and malaria incidents although there had been a reduction in its levels which was probably because of the distribution of mosquito nets.
“I ask you all to do routine work and not wait for special programs such as Supplementary Immunization to take place. I ask DHOs especially to prioritize your efforts in the areas that we have not performed well in and see that changes occur”, he said.
The CEO said financial support had been received from the Western Highlands and Jiwaka Provincial Governments as well as local MPs and donor agencies such as AusAID and there was more than K30 million available for infrastructure development in the two provinces.
He said basic medical equipment worth more than K1.3 million had also been procured and would arrive soon to be delivered to the rural facilities so staff must get down to serious business and deliver services to our people.
Dr. Kintwa said by end of August people from the rural areas would only be treated at Mt Hagen Hospital if they are referred by a rural facility. He said a toksave would go out on radio that if they come to Mt Hagen without a referral they would not be treated.
“It is also hoped that by August the Digicel Call Centre initiative will come into operation and you will explain why you are not there at your facility if people call in and complain. Cases of malaria, pneumonia and common colds should not be referred to Mt Hagen – they should be treated in the rural facilities.
“We want to see our province become number one in health service delivery so let’s do it. Our motto is “no mother or child should die during pregnancy, childbirth and the post partum period” so be passionate about what you do and take ownership of it”, he said.
Dr. Kintwa said the Health Minister and the National Department of Health as well as the two Governors, local MPs and AusAID were supporting the WHPHA so staff must do their part by delivering services to the people.
“If no good results are produced, the CEO and the senior executive management team and other managers must be held accountable and if we still see no changes, I will resign and I expect you to follow”, he said.