PNG hospital hit by termites

THE boss of the hospital slammed for its treatment of PNG porters says the facility had been allowed to fall apart.

THE boss of the hospital slammed for its treatment of Papua New Guinean porters wounded defending Australian trekkers says the facility had been allowed to fall apart over the past 20 years.

Angau hospital chief executive Polapoi Chalau said successive governments had stood by as building after building at the complex collapsed because of termites.

The public hospital in PNG's second city of Lae has reached the top of the agenda for AusAID, just as the agency is being merged with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Renovating the hospital is a core condition of the asylum-seeker deal between Australia and PNG made on July 19.

Two porters died from knife and gunshot wounds on the day of the attack on the Black Cat trail on September 10. A third man, Reynold Aigilo, died in Angau five days later from infection, which galvanised criticism of the hospital's condition. The remaining six wounded porters were shifted to the Australian-owned Lae International Hospital after failing to receive adequate treatment in Angau.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill insisted on priority funding for a $355 million renovation of Angau, which serves half a million people, the cost to be shared equally by Australia and PNG, as a condition of the deal he struck with Kevin Rudd.

Dr Chalau said that Angau has only 12 of 32 specialists it needs, and just 55 per cent of its 729 total staff. He said "most of our healthcare workers have retired or been retrenched," as well as leaving for the corporate sector.

"And it's a nationwide problem," he said.

He said that the correct procedures had been followed in the treatment of the wounded porters, whose health was compromised "long before they came in to Angau".

Lae International chairman Malcolm Lewis said that none of the porters had been treated with antibiotics until they were transferred to his hospital.

Angau had called Lae International asking if it could second a doctor and nursing staff.

Police yesterday arrested a further two suspects for the Black Cat attack, bringing the total in custody to six. They are hunting a further three suspects.