Doctors maintained as casuals at Madang PHA
Four Medical Doctors serving in the Madang PHA are paid on base level without getting their full remuneration packages.
Chief Executive Officer of Madang PHA, Dr Martin Daimen, told a recent inquiry by the Parliamentary Committee on Health Matters into the Madang PHA that the four doctors have been engaged as casuals for about two years.
Initially, there were six but two had left Madang PHA.
According to the Acting Director for Corporate Services, Ruth Wazami, the doctors were under Short Term Contracts, however; all their positions have come out and have been marketed internally.
They have already applied and are awaiting selection.
The authority anticipate to have the doctors confirmed to their positions soon with the rest of the other health workers, including public health, curative health, and corporate services.
Once that is complete, a restructure will follow; hopefully in the first quarter of 2026.
The CEO explained that Madang PHA is keeping the casuals because they are essential workers, and if let go, the health system will collapse, and Madang Province will face a lot of health issues.
"If we let these casuals go, who is going to provide?
"We need to keep them to maintain at least some minimum health service delivery. These are essential workforce that we really need, and we can't let them go," said Dr. Daimen.
Most of the casuals are engaged in rural health facilities.
Dr. Daimen also revealed that most of the rural health facilities in the province continue to remain understaffed.
"There are some health facilities that have a capacity requirement for seven staff, unfortunately they have only two. This is the kind of situation we are faced with, therefore; we have to maintain the casuals," he said.
The inquiry was also told that the casuals are paid from the authority's operational account, further straining these funds.
Special allocations for casual wages come from the Department of Treasury, but Madang PHA had employed too many casuals, which was not budgeted for, so they have to use goods and services monies to pay for casuals.
When asked if Madang PHA has been receiving its full budget appropriation in the last six years, Dr Daimen said, " Over the last six years, every budget we submitted, we are not given by the whole amount that we asked for. There are some cuts, due to whatever reason, at the top."
He gave an example of health function grants stating the normal operation estimate has to be at least K9 million or above in order to fully deliver public health programs as well as run district health services. But most of the time, it's normally cut down.