STAFF HOUSE NEEDED FOR BUANG HEALTH WORKER
CAPTION: Klembali Community Health post in Mambumb village in Buang, Morobe province.
BY BRADLEY MARIORI in Lae
A community health worker serving a recently reopened community health in upper Buang in Bulolo, Morobe is appealing for a staff house to be built to complement the infrastructure.
CHW Joshua Max who is currently serving at the Klembali Community Health post in Mambumb village in Buang recently took to social.media to air this concern.
“It has been over two years that I have been posted to serve here at Klembali but there is no house for me to reside in,” Mr Max said.
He confirmed that when he first took up the post as CHW, he was accommodated by the village Councillor Borom Mato.
“The neighboring villages within the catchment area promised to build a semi permanent house for me to use in the meantime while waiting for the Bulolo Development Authority to build a staff house but nothing has happened,” he said.
CHW Max said currently he is residing in the health facility on the room that is supposed to be an examination room for patients.
“This is not right,” he said.
He appealed to the Bulolo Health services and the administration of the district to construct a staff house for Klembali Community Health post.
He said the facility has been reopened and is in operation for the third year and staff housing is an urgent need.
He added there is no water supply to the health facility at the moment.
“Thankfully there is a creek that runs into the Biangkoun Lutheran church a few meters away from the health facility and locals have joined bamboos as piping to bring water closer to the facility so that I can and the patients who come during the day can use for drinking while I use for washing and latrine purposes,” he said.
He said lighting and electricity is also another challenge for the facility.
“Because there is no light, I only serve during the day and refer emergency cases to the Buang Sub Health Center in Ward 15 which is really far,” he said.
The Klembali Community Health post building was built about a decade ago under the chairmanship of the late Sam Basil to act as a sub health center so that the current sub health center in Ward 15 can be elevated to a health center and made independent of the Mumeng Health Center.
But Bulolo MP Sam Basil Jr has reopened the facility three years ago and equipped it with drugs and a health worker to serve the people of Muniau, Mambumb, Aiyeyok and Rari villages.
The Klembali Community Health post is one of three health facilities opened in the last three years to support the operations of the Buang Sub Health Center which currently acts as the referral center for these aid posts.
