Save Etep Rural Hospital

The Etep Rural hospital is at the brink of closure should funding from the PNG government be delayed any further.

The Hospital is located 15 kilometres inland from Wasu Station of Tewae-Siassi District, Morobe Province. The hospital does not only serve Tewae-Siassi but caters Kabwum District as well as Rai-Coast District of Madang Province. The hospital is a mission run facility under the Lutheran Health Services and serves almost 100,000 catchments of the 3 districts.

Over the last 12 months, we have admitted over 2000 patients across paediatrics, Obstetrics, Medicine (Including Tb) and surgery department. On average we see 100-200 patients per month from 2 districts of Morobe (Kabwum and Tewae-Siassi) and Rai-Coast District from Madang Province.

Salary and operational grant comes from the Government (Department of Treasury) through Christian Health Services (CHS). The Operational grant is then distributed to church agency health services including Lutheran Health Services across the country. Etep Rural Hospital receives about K11,000 operational grant per month. 60 % of the Operational grant is used to cater for support staff wages, while the other 40 % is use for daily operations, patient referral, running cost and equipment maintenance for the hospital.

However, the facility has been starved of operational grants since January 2021 and has been running from the internal revenue created from user fee collections. The scaling down of services early October has added more pressure on the already exhausted financial burden. The hospital is at the brink of closure should funding from the government be delayed any further.

Etep Rural Hospital provides basic services like any district hospital would provide including Family Health Services including sexual and reproductive health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, medicine including TB, HIV & AID’s and ART prescription, paediatric and surgical services. Apart from clinical services, other medical services provided in Laboratory Services (Gene Xpert/Biochemistry/Microscopy and other essential lab services), Radiology (X-ray) services and ultrasound imaging and well equip function operating theatre capable of providing emergency Obstetrics & Gynaecology care, orthopaedics and general surgery.

Despite the financial situation the hospital still continues to see emergency cases and perform emergency lifesaving operations.
Etep rural hospital is accessible by road and sea and serves as the major referral centre for smaller facilities in Kabwum, Raincoats and Wasu LLG of Tewae-Siassi. It provides affordable fees for locals in return provides the best timely treatment for all our patients.

Closure of the facility will be devastating for the surrounding communities and the covid19 surge situation in the country.