Western Highlands Governor, Paias Wingti has urged his people to work on their land and eat garden produce in order to live a healthy life.
He said foods that made people healthy such as kaukau, potatoes, corn, broccoli and vegetables were grown in the soil and people must do more gardening and eat the right foods to be healthy.
“Buai, smoke, beer, coke and lamb flaps are bad, the best foods are taken from the soil such as kaukau, potatoes, corn, broccoli and vegetables.
“We must re-adjust and take a different direction in life. I don’t want to see you in Hagen town any more – go back home and work on your land and eat more garden produce and live a healthy life”, he said.
Mr Wingti said this while addressing a big crowd at the Queen Elizabeth Park in Mt Hagen City recently during celebrations to mark 25 years of strong governance to the community of Western Highlands by the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority (WHPHA).
He said the board of governance system in public hospitals and now provincial health authorities were working effectively to deliver health services in the country and he was happy because that was his dream when he was prime minister in 1994.
He said health and education were his government’s main focus and he had come up with a concept for business and government to work together to manage these services, resulting in the good outcomes seen today.
The Health Department’s Deputy Chief Surgeon for the Highlands Region, Dr Benjamin Yapo when speaking on behalf of the staff of the WHPHA said the board system was good because it put in place clear policy guidelines for hospital and PHA managements to follow.
He said the WHPHA had a good Board which put in place a good structure that gave clear directions for the management and staff to follow for improved health care services for the people of Western Highlands and the neighbouring provinces.
Dr Yapo said staff at Mt Hagen Hospital and other health facilities in the province treated patients from start to finish, ensuring they were given the appropriate care and treatment and he was not sure why patients travelled to Kudjip and Kundiawa Hospitals for treatment.
He said staff at the hospital and health centres were committed to their jobs and he assured the public that anyone who sought their services would still be seen and treated.
