Pacific International Hospital, Papua New Guinea’s only private hospital offering advanced tertiary healthcare, continues to introduce medical treatment not previously available in the country at its new facility in Port Moresby. CEO Dr Amyna Sultan told Business Advantage PNG that the PIH is now focused on making this treatment more affordable for average families.

The new Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby was launched in March 2015. Credit: PIH.

The new Pacific International Hospital (PIH) is already delivering significant benefits to Papua New Guinea’s health sector.

This month, the hospital is scheduled to carry out its ninth open-heart surgery since launching at Three Mile in the National Capital District in March. It’s a new service providing a step forward for health in the country.

Raising the standards of the health sector in Papua New Guinea was the key focus in developing the new private facility, PIH Chief Executive Officer Dr Amyna Sultan OBE told Business Advantage PNG.

Pacific International Hospital CEO, Dr Amyna Sultan. Credit: PIH.

Dr Sultan said the development of the cardiac centre at PIH was just one example of its strategy to deliver improvements.

‘Now the hospital is gaining recognition as PNG’s heart centre and I think we will start helping more people who come in with acute heart attacks,’ Dr Sultan said.

‘The next step is to have a full time interventional cardiologist at PIH so we can attend to emergency stenting and angiograms.’

The cardiac centre is one of three key areas commissioned at the new site, which provides 24-hour access with an 80-bed capacity and four operating theatres.

Strong track record

PIH established in PNG in 2000.

Its open-heart surgeons can now provide bypass grafts, valvular surgery and paediatric cardiac surgery, while equipment in the cardiac centre includes a heart-lung machine, saws monitors, pumps and other fine instruments.

Now the hospital is gaining recognition as PNG’s heart centre and I think we will start helping more people who come in with acute heart attacks.

The neuro and diabetic centres were also developed significantly and are already helping to remove the need for patients to travel internationally for treatment.

The radiology suite was designed to house PNG’s first MRI machine which has significantly improved PIH’s ability to study its patients and offer more advanced diagnosis and neurosurgical options than previously available.

Affordable services

As PIH continues to add new health services, Dr Sultan said it was important for them to be delivered at affordable prices for average PNG families.

A hospital ward in the new Pacific International Hospital. Credit: PIH.

PIH is waiting for government approval of a subsidy scheme that would allow the hospital to provide its services to more Papua New Guineans, and further improve the health system in the country.

‘We are already providing some of the services at one-third of the cost of places like Australia, the Philippines or Singapore, but most PNG citizens don’t have the means to come to us,’ Dr Sultan explained.

‘We are awaiting a public subsidy so the services that PIH can now offer, and are not available at the Port Moresby general hospital yet, can reach these people.

‘As a public-private partnership, our mandate through the IPBC [Independent Public Business Corporation] is to bring services that are currently unavailable to PNG, and to develop this hospital to international standards.’

Next development

Dr Sultan said PIH would continue to realise its potential in the coming years by expanding the services it offers.

PIH’s growth plans include taking the new hospital’s model to Lae later this year, when it opens another facility at the Lae International Hospital site.

‘Very soon we will be acquiring the Lae International Hospital, then we will have an outreach through Lae as well, which is the gateway to the Highlands,’ Dr Sultan said.

We are already providing some of the services at one-third of the cost of places like Australia, the Philippines or Singapore but most PNG citizens don’t have the means to come to us.

‘Lae International Hospital was built on the model of our previous PIH. We would improve the services available and also bring some new services in the private sector in Lae.’

As an ophthalmologist, Dr Sultan said she was also eager to see improvements in the services available for people with eye conditions.

‘Ophthalmology is very rudimentary in PNG—we basically just do cataracts. Another thing I’d like to see is PIH develop a full spectrum of ophthalmology as well,’ she said.