About Us

Port Moresby General Hospital is located in the capital city of Port Moresby and is the major referral and teaching hospital in Papua New Guinea. The hospital has a total of 1200 beds; treating patients from Port Moresby, National Capital District, Central & Gulf provinces, as well as referrals from provinces throughout the country. As of 2020, Port Moresby city has a population of more than 500,000.

Port Moresby General Hospital [PMGH] employs about 1500 plus workers, including, doctors, nurses, administration and facilities. Regarded as a level 7 tertiary, teaching and referral hospital, the hospital, it is expected to provide specialist health services for the country and provide clinical teaching and attachments for the students of the Medical school located within walking distance. At present PMGH is one of the Hospitals in the Country that have a CT Scanner and MRI Facilities, along with radiology, pathology, pharmacy, 24-hour emergency services, pediatrics and medical services and programs, Intensive Care Unit, specialist surgical services, ENT, OMF, Ophthalmology services, Obstetrics & gynecology health services, as well as the the mortuary services. With the increasing demand for public health services in the city, the Port Moresby General hospital introduced a number of (new urban-omit) clinics within the hospital premises to address this (primary and secondary health care).

These new health services include the ambulatory clinic, Heduru [HIV] clinic, TB clinic, Family Support Center, Susu mama clinic (for newborns and their mothers having difficulty with breast feeding attachment), Well Baby Clinic that provides immunization to children and provides and avenue for children with HIV to be followed up to avoid discrimination. These clinics will eventually be offloaded to Urban clinics and a level 5 hospital in order for the hospital to concentrate on tertiary specialist health services.

The new specialist health services the hospital has introduced and developing to fully establish include the Oncology center, the cardiac diagnostic center, the Cath lab, the cardiac ward and cardiothoracic ward, the renal dialysis unit and the neurosurgical unit. The following existing units will also be fully developed and this include the urology, orthopedic, pediatric surgery, interplast and the gastroenterology unit.

There is a need to build a dedicated section of the hospital for the orthopedic patients and physiotherapy. This needs to be well equipped to cater for the high caseload. The operating theatre will also need to be rehabilitated and increase the number of operating suits from four to ten. There is also a need to build an intensive care unit that is capable of managing all critical patients and neonatology as well as post-operative critical care. A new CSSD and an endoscopy suit need to be built also.

Basically, health care in Papua New Guinea is provided by governments, Church health-run Hospitals and a few private hospitals and clinics. In terms of facilities, there are 1820 aid posts, 508 larger health centres, and 48 urban clinics in 2000. About 96 percent of the people live within reach of these primary health care centres.

There are government hospitals in all provinces except Central province, whose people receive medical services from Port Moresby General Hospital which is basically a teaching and referral hospital. There is other privately run hospitals in NCD too.

The National Department of Health plans and administers health programs that are implemented at the Provincial and district levels however the current devolution exercise has seen the delegation of powers to hospitals to be more flexible in managing their own human resources and finances.

Other programs are aimed at improving nutrition, personnel cleanliness, dental care, and mental health. The government also tries to promote safe water supplies and food sanitation. It tries to control communicable diseases, (e.g., diarrhea, tuberculosis, leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases) by giving people better information about the nature and the cause of the diseases.