Public/Private Partnership Improves Healthcare Outcomes in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: August 2020

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 199373, “A Public/Private Partnership To Improve Healthcare Outcomes in Papua New Guinea,” by Henry Welch, Texas Children’s Hospital, Nirven Kumar, ExxonMobil, and Michael Mizwa, Texas Children’s Hospital, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainability, originally scheduled to be held in Bogota, Colombia, 28-30 July. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) ranks 157th out of 187 countries on the United Nations (UN) Human Development Index, with extremely high under-5 mortality (5.4% of children will die before the age of 5). In 2013, ExxonMobil PNG (EMPNG) facilitated a public/private partnership (PPP) to improve healthcare education at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and clinical management in child health at Port Moresby General Hospital and other PNG facilities, as well as strengthen public health capacity. The complete paper reviews the aspects and results of this program.

Introduction

PNG is one of the more diverse countries in the world, geographically, biologically, linguistically, and culturally. Communicable diseases are a recognized problem in PNG, with pneumonia, diarrhea, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, newborn infections, and other communicable diseases being responsible for 62% of deaths nationwide. Malnutrition remains a significant contributor to morbidity, mortality, and national economic loss. PNG has the fourth highest rate of stunting in the world because of chronic malnutrition - 48% of children experience this deficiency. Malnutrition also contributes to nearly 30% of hospital deaths of children.

In recent years, TB, including drug-resistant TB, has emerged as a public health crisis in PNG. With 432 cases per 100,000 population annually, PNG has the sixth highest incidence rate of TB cases worldwide. Twenty-six percent of these TB cases occur in children, which represents the highest such percentage in the world.

An adequate number of well-trained healthcare workers is essential to address these issues as well as other health priorities in PNG. The country suffers from a severe shortage of doctors, with 0.05 physicians per 1,000 population. By comparison, neighboring Australia has 3.52 doctors per 1,000 population. Additionally, while the national government is recommending at least 300 new doctors to be trained per year, only one medical school, The University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Sciences (UPNG-SMHS) exists; it produces approximately 50 doctors per year.

To build healthcare capacity, a needs assessment was conducted. Historically short-term expatriate secondments of faculty to UPNG were 1-3 months and, while beneficial, were unable to provide consistent teaching rotations. Barriers to long-term secondments to UPNG included locating suitable candidates, logistical and safety issues, isolationism, and an extremely high cost of living for expatriates in Port Moresby.