{"id":579780,"date":"2025-11-19T05:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/579780\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T05:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:33:13","slug":"png-govt-says-drug-stocks-rebounding-despite-patients-still-buying-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/579780\/","title":{"rendered":"PNG Govt Says Drug Stocks Rebounding Despite Patients Still Buying Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PNG Government has moved to assure the public that medical supplies are gradually stabilising across the country, even as families continue to purchase their own medicines due to intermittent shortages in major hospitals.<\/p>\n

At Angau Memorial Hospital, patient Simon Sawalu, 60, has spent nearly three weeks in the emergency ward. His partner, Susan Simon, said she had to buy intravenous (IV) fluids because the hospital had no stock available at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought three for K90,\u201d she said, expressing frustration that essential items were missing when needed most.<\/p>\n\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\u00a0PNG Govt Says Drug Stocks Rebounding Despite Patients Still Buying Medicine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

These concerns arise as the Health Department implements measures aimed at restoring consistent availability of drugs nationwide.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Elias Kapavore said all five Area Medical Stores, along with Port Moresby General Hospital and Angau, currently have one to three months of stock for 428 essential medicines and consumables. He said more than K25 million worth of supplies had been delivered since August, with a further K48 million already in the delivery pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional stock is arriving steadily and will strengthen availability in the coming weeks,\u201d Kapavore said.<\/p>\n

Angau Hospital management confirmed that shortages do occur \u201cfrom time to time\u201d due to supply and demand pressures, adding that it relies on the Health Department for replenishment.<\/p>\n

Kapavore said the Department recently completed one of its largest procurement efforts, issuing four tenders covering 332 essential items. Most of these have already been assessed and awarded, and multi-year contracts are being used to secure high-volume drugs and critical consumables.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that some hospitals and clinics had experienced temporary stock gaps but said targeted deliveries and redistributions were helping maintain essential services.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew shipments arriving in December will further strengthen the supply chain,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Responding to comments from former prime minister Peter O\u2019Neill, Kapavore said public debate was welcome but cautioned against statements that could cause unnecessary alarm. He also dismissed claims that the Prime Minister had criticised medical staff, saying health workers remained highly valued and were a key part of the Government\u2019s health-system recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

Also read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PNG Government has moved to assure the public that medical supplies are gradually stabilising across the country,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,183421,183422,183424,183420,183423,183419,183426,183425,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-579780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-png-business-news","11":"tag-png-economy-news","12":"tag-png-education-news","13":"tag-png-loop-news","14":"tag-png-mining-news","15":"tag-png-news","16":"tag-png-sports-news","17":"tag-png-technology-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115574735348028651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}