MEDICAL SCHOOL REQUIRES ADDITIONAL FUNDING

By Kana Noka

More funding is needed to upgrade infrastructures at the University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Dean of the school Professor Nakapi Tefuarani says the facilities where built in 1960s and 70s to accommodate students from that era, however till today the School continuous to use these facilities for teaching and learning.

Professor Tefuarani reveals that the medical school receives Thirteen Million Kina per year, of which Twelve Million Kina goes to salary, and only Eight Hundred Thousand Kina is left to manage for its maintenance.
He says that makes the school of medical faculty the “cheapest medical school” in the world to operate with such limited funding.

Currently the school does not have enough funding and infrastructures to train enough manpower to provide better health services in the country.
Tefuarani says he is pleased that the government has prioritized Health and Education as the way forward for the future of this country, but he says there is no magic formula; the format is that we don’t put the money where we are suppose to train more manpower.

Tefuarani says Thirteen Million Kina is not enough for the school’s operation for a year, thus call for review of funding for the school.