According to Project Coordinator, Shah Khalid, this will not only help them here and now with COVID-19 but also in the future: “Training our staff is essential to ensure their and our patient’s safety. The procedures apply in all health care provision, while we are in a pandemic and also in any other time”.
Another important, yet often overlooked topic that the medical practitioners will learn about is patient education and counselling. This is to ensure the patients’ mental and emotional well-being are not neglected.
The latter has been a topic that has been largely ignored in the country. Patients who test positive are isolated and stigmatized due to the lack of general knowledge about COVID-19. Stigma around the virus is still rife with many refusing to test for the virus, even when showing symptoms.
The projects’ patient education and counselling manager, Fundzile Msibi discusses the importance of the sessions; “It’s very important to understand that people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 will face a lot of emotions. They are worried about their diagnosis, maybe anxious or uncertain about recovering because they will look at the number of people dying of the virus worldwide. They will also have to remain in isolation, away from family and friends. All of these challenges will affect them psychologically as well so this support is to help them cope with their situation. Just being there for the patients to express their emotions and to support them when they are going through this period.”
“We want to prevent emotional problems or disorders such as depression.”
The staff plan to have regular counselling sessions with the patients during the different stages of their stay at the hospital and is also starting to look at how these issues may be addressed in the communities.
MSF has worked in PNG for many years running tuberculosis programs and continues diagnosis and treatment in Port Moresby (NCD) and Kerema (Gulf Province).
