Andy Park: Women are being forced to give birth on the floor due to a lack of beds in Papua New Guinea's main hospital. Years of alleged neglect by hospital management has prompted staff to speak out, saying the facility simply can't cope. PNG correspondent Marian Faa visited the wards.
Marian Faa: It's a busy morning in the maternity ward of the Port Moresby General Hospital. Hallways are crowded with mothers and their babies, dozens of them lying on the floor.
Christina Paulus: It would be much better if there's a bed so I can just sit comfortably.
Marian Faa: Christina Paulus lost more than a litre of blood during her birth. Hours later, she was moved onto the floor to free up the bed for another woman in labour. She's still in pain from the delivery.
Christina Paulus: So when I'm sitting like this and then I'm trying to change the baby, all this, I'm feeling uncomfortable because I have the wound.
Marian Faa: With staff hurrying past and crying babies nearby, it's difficult to rest.
Christina Paulus: Like people are going here and then. You want to sleep but then the noise will still wake you up.
Marian Faa: Her predicament isn't uncommon. Last year, staff began collecting data on the state of maternity services. They found that more than 7,000 mothers received at least some of their care on the hospital floor due to a lack of beds. Dr Glen Mola is an obstetrician at the hospital and one of the country's most respected doctors.
Dr Glen Mola: There's no way a midwife can sit down or kneel down on the floor beside you when there's blood and urine and licor and faeces.
Marian Faa: He says the conditions are not conducive to positive birth outcomes.
Dr Glen Mola: Birthing women require quietness, calmness, an ambience that makes them confident and feel as though everything's okay and they're being looked after. Anxiety and fear are very anti having the baby.
Marian Faa: Over the Easter weekend, Dr Mola says two women and two babies died, at least partly due to insufficient capacity.
Dr Glen Mola: We're losing the ability to cope. The facilities we have here are sufficient for about 10,000 women a year and we exceeded 10,000 back in the 90s.
Marian Faa: Staff have accused the state-run hospital of years of neglect, failing to invest in the facility and plan for growing demand.
Dr Glen Mola: You know the walls are broken, the toilets are not working well, some of the sinks are blocked, lights are not working.
Marian Faa: They were even more dismayed when a proposal to upgrade the maternity ward with $37 million from the Japanese government was rejected in 2022. If completed, the new facility would have more beds, a specialist ICU and a laboratory. But Dr Mola says the hospital has its own vision of building a maternity ward at a different location, a plan he believes is highly impractical.
Dr Glen Mola: And the idea that the Port Moresby General Hospital management has to ensconce our birthing service in an eight-storey enclosed tower with no natural ventilation or much lighting is anti-birthing.
Marian Faa: Hospital CEO Dr Paki Molumi declined to answer the ABC's questions. But the Governor of the city, Powes Parkop, says the Japanese grant wasn't refused. Instead, the hospital wants to use the money to boost maternity services at a smaller hospital on the city's outskirts. In the meantime, PNG Prime Minister James Marape is promising a quick fix.
James Marape: There's a need right away. We'll attend to the immediate need as well as the long term need.
Marian Faa: A commitment thousands of women are relying on.