Manolos Aviation Ltd has been a passionate advocate and provider of medivac services within Morobe Province and Papua New Guinea. This is in support of the national government’s goal to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
As part of the improvement strategies taken onboard by the company, it is important to maintain a strong relationship with private medical and government stakeholders to ensure the medevac service is effective and efficient.
The company through HR/Marketing Consultant Phyonna Silikara hosted three series of medivac operations workshop in 2020 in Lae. The workshop was aimed at informing partners, suppliers and most importantly, front-liners at Morobe Provincial Health Authority (MPHA) about the Manolos medevac program, equipments and fleet, statistics on flights, challenges, and the general operations.
The first workshop on October 02nd 2020 was with Dr Lincoln Menda, the Director Curative health services of MPHA, Mr Kelly Mesere, the MPHA technical adviser, and MPHA family health services coordinator Mrs Lina Japu. Despite the absence of other invited participants, the purpose was to establish an active network with the top management of MPHA, and to highlight the challenges of running the medivac service in Morobe Province.
The second workshop on Oct. 15th 2020 was for front-liners, especially nurse managers of each department at Angau Provincial Hospital, such as the accident and emergency, labour ward, post-natal ward and blood bank. A very fruitful and successful discussions was conducted. Ideas put forward and discussed include;
the use of a CUG mobile phone at a specific point of entry for communication,
providing tools for medevac nurses to assist with patient triage,
up skilling of nurses,
the need for a complete team of human resources on the ground e.g. midwife, acute nurse, paediatric nurse, Doctor, HEO etc, for specific medevac case,
establishing a point of contact between MPHA and Manolos Medevac team,
repatriation to be carried out by Manolos and in liaison with Nurse Managers,
more awareness on Manolos Medevac Operations to staff of MPHA,
guardians to look after patients must know Tok Pisin and be a reliable person,
patient’s needs and necessities must be taken care of, especially menstrual pads, clothes, counselling and others.
The third workshop was held on Dec. 05, and covered the private Hospitals operating in Lae, and suppliers of drugs and medication for the medevac program. The two main private hospitals which medivac patients are referred to are Lae International Hospital and GM Flores, both had representatives that attended the workshop. Usual medivac suppliers are NECTARO, City Pharmacy and Seeto Kui Pharmacy which were present, while others invited were absent.
With the successful outcome of the workshops in Lae, a similar series has been scheduled to commence in mid-2021 for the Manolos Aviation Kokopo base and medevac team, with the hope to foster more relations to ensure the medevacs are effective and efficient.