German Emergency Medical Team Deployed to PNG's Nonga Base Hospital

A GERMAN medical team is helping out at the Nonga Base Hospital in Kokopo, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea  and will be there for three weeks.

According to a media statement released by the PNG Department of Health, the team is one of the four Emergency Medical Teams to have responded to Papua New Guinea Government’s request to help in the COVID-19 response.

German Emergency Medical Team Deployed to PNG's Nonga Base Hospital . Photo : A group picture of CADUS team members with NCC EMT staff (supplied) 

CADUS Emergency Medical Team is based in Berlin, Germany, and is a non-profit and an independent aid organization, and its deployment to PNG has been made financially possible by the German Government.

Team Leader Thorben Schulze-Hamann thanked the German Government for funding his team’s deployment to PNG.

“We’ve been deployed in other parts of the world, and this is our first time to come to PNG,” Dr Schulze-Hamann said.

Some of the countries that CADUS has been deployed to in the past for natural disasters as well as medical emergencies include Namibia, Bosnia, Iraq and Greece.

The 10-member team deployed to PNG comprises specialists in anaesthesiology, intensive care, surgery, nursing and paramedic. They will be at Nonga Hospital for three weeks, starting last Thursday.

Prior to leaving for Kokopo, they were briefed by the National Control Centre EMT Team Lead Dr Gary Nou and his deputy Dr Kapua Kapua of PNG, ENB, and the health system in the country.

The provinces that have recorded high numbers and ended up in the red or high-risk group in the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic include ENB. It is still in the red while many other provinces, including most of the highland provinces have now moved to the medium risk.

Deputy Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response Dr Daoni Esorom thanked CADUS for responding to PNG’s request for help.

He said apart from work that they had come to do they should make time to visit Kokopo’s historical sites as they would find that ENB has a long history with Germany.

Meanwhile, there is also a medical assistance team from New Zealand that is currently in the country. They have been deployed to Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Three of their members have also been assigned to help out at the National Control Centre in Port Moresby.

Photo captions: 1. National Control Centre Emergency Team Lead Dr Gary Nou briefs the CADUS team of some of the things that they need to know about PNG, East New Britain and the health system in PNG a day before their departure to Kokopo.

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