FREQUENT VISITS LOOKING TO EMPOWER MORE HEALTHCARE DELIVERY
By Sharon AGAVI
The East Sepik Public Health Directorate, in its ongoing efforts to enhance healthcare delivery in the province, commenced 2025 on a high note with a series of important visits to several active rural health facilities in the Central Sepik region of East Sepik province.
Dr. Mathew Soma Mongolap, Deputy Director for Public Health Programs, conducted a first-hand assessment of each facility regarding infrastructure improvements, staff capacity, and enhancement in medical supplies.
In an interview with this newsroom, he said from the visits, they assess the Health Facilities, Medical Consumables and their stock outs, essential medical equipment’s like foot scale, hanging scale and staff level of competencies.
He says frequent visits to the rural health facilities ensure a smooth flow of healthcare delivery within their respective catchment areas and highlight their unwavering support for the significant roles and efforts made by their healthcare workers, who are dedicated to serving diligently in rural settings.
He highlighted the most needed things identified in those rural facilities as;
Man power to share tasks, training and mentoring during visits internally, medical supplies, staff housing and accessibility to water supply and adequate lighting system.
These visits have been going on since 2024.
“We do monthly visits to the Health Facilities with quarterly visits for Monitoring and Evaluation Purposes and visits when needed to map out the facility needs for Immediate action.”
Accompanying Dr. Mongolap was the East Sepik Provincial Health Authority Planner, Mr. Charles Kaprangi, who is also taking bold steps to work collaboratively with the public Health Directorate to ensure significant changes occur in alignment with the ESPHA goals and visions.
