| Papua New Guinea | Australia | |
| Population | 7,399,757 | 25,809,973 |
| Average life expectancy at birth (male/female) |
67.4/72.5 years |
80.7/85.2 |
| Urban population |
13.5% |
86.4% |
| GDP per capita | 4,355 USD | 49,854 USD |
| Health spending (% of GDP) | 2.4% | 9.3% |
| Human Development Index |
0.555 |
0.944 |
| Education expenditure (% of GDP) |
1.9% |
5.1% |
*2021 est. unless specified otherwise (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/)
Catholic Church Health Services, PNG
Catholic Church Health Services supports a rural primary healthcare centre in Malala Village in Madang province. This serves more than 20,000 people who would otherwise have very low access to healthcare facilities. The clinic also continues to provide increased immunisation coverage for preventable diseases, essential medicines to the sick, and strengthened emergency referrals to the provincial hospital. Where we can, Cabrini Outreach provides capacity strengthening support to this clinic – for example recently assisting with a grant application to provide a bench-top steriliser and vaccination fridge.
Modilon General Hospital, Madang
Since 2007 Cabrini Outreach has been partnered with Modilon General Hospital, which is a government provincial hospital in Madang Province. It is a 270-bed facility that sees and serves approximately 250 outpatients a day, and approximately 10-20 people through their emergency department. While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has more recently hindered Cabrini Outreach’s ability to support our partners on-ground at Modilon General Hospital, we continue to support them remotely through capacity strengthening. So far, our involvement has included:
- Pathology Service – COL has provided a pro-bono pathology service since 2014, whereby pathology specimens from Modilon General Hospital are couriered to Melbourne for testing and the results are reported within 13 days. This is a vast improvement on the turnaround previously experienced through the in-country service – which was approximately six months to two years.
- Orthopaedic Surgical Trips – COL has facilitated orthopaedic surgical trips to Modilon General Hospital to strengthen access of orthopaedic services to the population. This has been thanks to Cabrini orthopaedic specialists who volunteer their time every year to not only directly help patients, but enhance local staff’s understanding and confidence when it comes to surgical procedures.
- Biomedical Trips – COL has also facilitated biomedical trips, whereby Cabrini Technology Group staff volunteer their time to see Modilon General Hospital’s working theatres improved and enhance local staff’s understanding and confidence when it comes to biomedical procedures and the operations of vital medical equipment. This has included anaesthetic machine and oxygen manifold repairs, and reviews of ED, ICU and pathology (including reviewing all six ICU ventilators with minor repairs).
Recent Achievements
- Establishment of Cervical Cancer screening program in conjunction with funding from the Kirby institute;
- Funding of a registered nurse for the Cervical Cancer Screening;
- Donation of car vehicle to CCHS to ensure better patient transport from rural areas;
- Securing of a grant to access and provide improved medical equipment to Malala Health Centre in the form of a vaccine fridge and steriliser.