Mt Hagen Urban Clinic’s Family Health Services will now be able to reach out to more schools and communities to carry out its outreach programs.

This follows the purchase of a brand new Toyota Landcruiser 10-seater vehicle by the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority (WHPHA) to assist the clinic carry out its programs.

In the past, maternal and child health clinics had been limited to the clinic only and school health outreach programs could not be carried out frequently as there was no vehicle.

According to the management of WHPHA, the clinic contributed more to the health indicators in Western Highlands Province and the use of the vehicle would further enhance it.

The Sister-In-Charge of Family Health Services in Hagen Central, Sr. Doris Kaiwa said the purchase of this vehicle was long overdue and she was happy her team would now be able to reach out to more schools, villages and communities.

She said most of the routine immunization programs had been carried out within Mt Hagen City, resulting in many children in nearby villages not being immunized and her team would now start visiting these places on a daily basis.

Chief Executive Officer of WHPHA, Dr. James Kintwa when handing over the vehicle to the clinic said this was an occasion for children and mothers with whom all the resources of the WHPHA were directed towards and what was happening was important.

He urged his staff to forget about carrying out the Supplementary Immunization Activity (SIA) and concentrate more on the routine immunization activities because it defeated the whole purpose of the latter and made staff lazy.

Dr. Kintwa said all vehicles must be used to the fullest to carry out these routine activities, adding that if a program could not be carried out because of lack of transport, his official vehicle was available.

He said the fleet manager was responsible for all WHPHA vehicles and all requests for transport should be made to his office for allocation of vehicles for specific programs to be carried out.