By the Critic

Another story about our wrong model of development

Everyday I meet interesting people.

Two months ago, it was  a doctor - the Director of Medical Services at a provincial hospital. During our discussion, he  said  we – the PNG government – are putting money into areas that won’t improve the nation’s health.

After years of working  as a doctor, you’d think he would have unshakable confidence  in the  processes and the methods he was taught as a student in medical school.  But he appeared to have become somewhat disillusioned with what he described as the “model of health service delivery.”

“It’s wrong,” he said.

His methods are  simple.  For instance, if you want to eradicate malaria in a community,  you don’t spend thousands of kina on several kilograms of Artesunate and Fansidar. You drain water catchments and cut the grass short so that mosquitoes don’t breed.

If mosquitoes don’t breed, you don’t get  malaria.

You wash your hands with soap after going to the toilet and boil your water if you’re using a natural water source or a well.  It’s very simple but it prevents nationwide cholera epidemics.  If you have bedbugs in your house, don’t buy Mortein.  Instead, put your mattresses and beddings in the sun. While you’re at it, don’t forget to open your windows every morning to let in sunshine and fresh air.

It’s too easy and it’s not new. All this used to be taught in primary school not so long ago.  I can still remember posters for grade ones. “Eat healthy foods,”  one of the posters said.  There was a picture of a child chomping on a piece  of coconut. “Clean your teeth with a sugar cane brush” or a tooth pick. “Don’t eat sweet foods.” Toothbrushes and Colgate toothpaste weren’t even mentioned.

We seem to have underestimated the importance of eliminating potential health problems before they develop into nationwide epidemics. How many of our children have had to go to dentists? How many of us adults can afford to go to a dentist for regular checkups?

A women who worked at a small private clinic opted for the removal of a molar because it was too expensive to get it filled and reconstructed by a dentist at  mission clinic in Ukarumpa, Kainantu. Colgate Palmolive currently makes millions from its Colgate Fluoride toothpaste which, supposedly, prevents tooth decay. But nobody has told Papua New Guineans that fluoride actually makes the enamel of your teeth brittle.  Nobody from the health department goes to primary schools anymore to  tell first graders that Coca Cola is bad for their teeth and Scotch Finger biscuits shouldn’t be eaten.

One MP had his leg amputated this year. Diabetes. A lifestyle disease. Too much sugar.  How many more have bodies that make them prime candidates for heart attacks?  Too many. Except Jamie Graham, of course.  And yet we criticize  him and tell him that we have bigger problems in the health system to worry about his  “healthy eating craze.”   But you know what? If everyone ate like Jamie, we’d put Dr. Glen Mola  and his hospital out of business.  There’d be a drastic reduction of patients going to the Pacific  International Hospital to use the dialysis machine. The nurses at POM GEN wouldn’t be stressed out and bad tempered because there would be less patients to attend to.

The good doctor said: “We don’t need medicine”  if we eat well and walk to work or at least  walk part of the way.   The bottom line is that we’re still  putting money into curing illnesses  when we should be putting millions into preventing  causes of those illnesses.  There is little value placed on the simple actions that prevent million dollar catastrophes. Young graduates out of nursing school don’t want to work in a community aid post or to teach communities how to prevent diseases. The old APOs did it. Now, it’s out of style.  They want surgical gloves. They want to treat illnesses with medicines that have exotic sounding names like Flucloxicline and Doxycicline.  

All this just makes me want an Asprin.