ChildFund Australia health adviser Tracy Yuen said the COVID epidemic meant having to share the same limited resources with more health needs. With the focus on COVID,particularly in the capital,she felt the provinces were being left behind.

“The majority of rural health facilities aren’t open,” she said. “Even before the COVID pandemic,a lot of health facilities were running out of funding,having to close,running out of basic resources,supplies,medicines.”

Health workers were also turning patients away from facilities. Some facilities were full,but others were not open due to a lack of personal protective equipment and fears over the spread of COVID-19.

That meanttreatment for infectious diseases was falling behind,as well as childhood vaccination programs and maternal health.

“PNG already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the region,and I’m quite worried to think how much worse that’s getting at the moment,” Yuen said.

“We’re really worried that pregnant women aren’t going to be able to access the safe delivery,and if they get turned back,that becomes a very dangerous situation for them.”

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said last month half of the women presenting at hospitals due to pregnancy were testing positive for COVID-19.

World Vision Australia’s head of programs in PNG,Graham Strong,said tuberculosis treatment had also faltered due to the pandemic.

“We’ve already seen reports coming out that COVID,is actually setting back the progress that we’ve made in addressing the high prevalence of TB in places like PNG by 12 years,” he said.

Yuen agreed the situation with TB was critical. In one instance,the TB inpatient ward in one of the areas where ChildFund works has been converted to a COVID isolation ward,forcing TB patients to sleep outside.

“It’s really unfortunate,TB patients already have poor immune systems,they shouldn’t be left out in the elements,” she said.

“The irony is,last I checked,there was no one in the COVID isolation ward,because the provincial health services haven’t been conducting a lot of testing,so there’s very few cases being identified. So these wards are also not being used as well as they should be.”

Strong said the initial 8000 AstraZeneca doses provided by the Australian government for healthcare workers was a good start,but much more would be needed to ensure frontline healthcare workers were able to continue doing their jobs.

“It’s going to be a huge effort to be able to address this for PNG,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond by deadline to questions about how many healthcare workers will be sent from Australia to assist PNG,and how Australia will help the PNG government get vaccines into hard to reach areas including the remote treaty villages.

Yuen said not-for-profits like ChildFund were able to help if needed.

In order to help childhood vaccinations,she said ChildFund often joins government health workers on five-day treks to reach villages that cannot be reached by four-wheel drives.

“It would be a day’s trek between each of the villages ... Crossing streams,crossing mountains;if there’s been a lot of rain they’ll be cut off as well,” Yuen said.

“The NGOs provide a really essential service,and they are so connected to communities that it would be a shame not to use them. But we’re on standby waiting to support.”