Training for Tomorrow

In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Port Moresby General Hospital, Dr Gamini Vali moves with quiet purpose among the rhythmic beeping of monitors.

For more than a decade, Dr Vali has been on the frontlines of newborn care in Papua New Guinea, caring for the nation’s most vulnerable patients: newborns. As a paediatrician in the hospital’s newborn unit, she faces daily challenges made even more difficult by overstretched and under-trained staff, and a critical shortage of adequate equipment and space.

Her ward sees over 40 babies each day. Beds and cots are always full, and the nurse-to-patient ratio – sometimes 1:15 – is significantly more than the safe standard.

“A third of our admissions are born premature or with low birth weight require rooming for kangaroo care,” she explains. “However, due to limited space, we often can’t room parents and babies together. So, kangaroo care – which should happen immediately after birth - is often delayed and done outside the hospital.”

As the country’s specialist hospital, Port Moresby General is one of the better equipped facilities in PNG. But the situation is far more critical in rural health centres, where nearly 87% of the population lives. Many clinics lack even basic supplies like clean gloves or antibiotics.

To help bridge this gap and improve care in remote areas, Dr Vali joined the Clinical Mentorship Program as a clinical mentor. Her role: build the knowledge and skills of frontline healthcare workers in some of the country’s most underserved communities.

The program, launched in May 2024 with part support from the Governments of Australia and the Republic of Korea, was born out of a pressing reality: every day, 27 newborns die in Papua New Guinea, often due to preventable complications related to prematurity, sepsis and asphyxia.

To confront this crisis, the National Department of Health, with support from UNICEF and partners including the Paediatric Society of PNG and the PNG Obstetrics & Gynaecology society, developed the mentorship program to strengthen newborn care across 10 provinces.

Dr Vali is part of a team of experienced doctors and nurses who travel to selected provinces every six months. Their work involves identifying gaps in infrastructure, equipment, staffing, and clinical practice – and delivering hands-on training in special care nurseries and labour wards.

“The main objective of the mentoring programme is to reduce neonatal admissions and deaths by identifying and addressing gaps in infrastructures, manpower, and supplies,” says Dr Vali who has visited two provinces under the program.

This life-saving effort would not have been possible without the steadfast support of the Governments of Australia and the Republic of Korea. Their contributions – both in funding the mentorship initiative and supplying essential newborn care equipment – has been transformative.

Through their support, health facilities across the 10 provinces have received critical medical equipment, including Bubble CPAP machines, phototherapy lights, ultrasound machines, ventilators, and complete newborn kits containing ambu bags, foetal dopplers, pulse oximeters, stethoscopes and drip stands.

The impact extends beyond patients. Healthcare workers trained under the program are now confident in assembling the equipment and identifying babies at risk of respiratory failure – a lasting outcome of the hands-on mentorship.

One of those lives saved belongs to baby Tommie, who was born with severe breathing difficulties due to meconium aspiration. Thanks to the donated CPAP machine, Tommie was stabilised and given a chance to recover.   

"Now he is breathing well, and I’m looking forward to bringing him home to meet his family for the first time,” said his mother, Ethelyn Wesley. “Thank you for saving my baby.”

As Papua New Guinea works toward its target of reducing newborn mortality from 22 to 12 per 1,000 live births by 2030, the Clinical Mentorship Program is laying the foundation for change.