Doctors and midwives at Papua new Guinea’s main hospital have accused the state-owned service of years of neglect. They say it is left the facility overcrowded with women forced to give birth on the floor.
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00:00This building, erected in 1958, is fondly known in local language as the Susu Mama Clinic.
00:09It's Port Moresby's only public maternity ward, where about 17,000 women come to give birth every year.
00:16But recently, staff say the facility is completely overrun.
00:21This facility here is just swamped. And as we walked through, you saw about 20 women on the floor in a passageway and another 10 in a side room on the floor.
00:39Last year, workers documented more than 7,000 mothers who attended the clinic received at least some of their care on the floor.
00:47They say it's undignified and puts lives at risk.
00:52At 5 minutes past 10, I delivered my baby. I was allowed to sleep for an hour on the bed until I felt all right.
01:00But then another woman came in to have her baby, so they told me to go onto the floor.
01:04Staff are calling for urgent relief, and Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape has pledged to help,
01:11calling a meeting with doctors and the Health Minister late last week, promising to fund a rescue plan.
01:17Staff are calling for industrial ramifications, and the Bloom Channel Order.
01:22Nav arise, asking for helpers to find out who will be members with a man in the judges.
01:30And and I leave the community here.
01:33And I realize that it's still here for all of our and our work,
01:36we're in one of those resources.