Dermatology

DERMATOLOGY SERVICES AT PORT MOREBY GENERAL HOSPITAL

Basic Dermatology services at Port Moresby General Hospital are provided by the Dermatology (Skin) Clinic located amongst other Consultation Clinics on Level 2 of JICA Wing. It is a small (2 cubical) clinic situated between the Eye Clinic and the ENT Clinic and operates five (5) days a week from Mondays to Fridays.

Apart from dermatological problems, this Clinic also operates as the Leprosy Clinic and all new/suspected Leprosy cases from within the National Capital District and Central Province are referred here for confirmation and management. Also, certain sexually transmitted infections and other Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) such as Yaws, Buruli Ulcers etc., are also managed in this clinic.

The Dermatology Clinic is manned by a small clinical team comprising:

Three (3) Consultants
Two (2) Registrars
Two (2) Nursing Officers
Two (2) Community Health Workers
One (1) Clerk

The Dermatology Clinic operates as a “Consultation-only” Clinic and only patients that are referred from other Health Facilities or Hospitals are entertained. Other sources of referral includes General Practitioners and Private Hospitals. Another group of patients with dermatological problems that come to this clinic are in-patients from the wards and other Consultation Clinics within Port Moresby General Hospital as “Ward or Clinic Consults”.

The majority of patients that access dermatological services at this Clinic come from within the National Capital District. However, a good number of skin patients do come from the neighboring Provinces of Central and Gulf. As the Port Moresby General Hospital’s Dermatology Clinic is the only recognized clinic that provides dermatological services in the whole of Papua New Guinea, we also see patients that get referred to us from other provinces in the country.

The main services provided by this Dermatology Clinic includes:

Clinical diagnosis, investigation and treatment of all dermatological conditions
Diagnosis and treatment of Leprosy and management of Leprosy-related complications
Diagnosis, investigation and treatment of some Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and NTDs
Doing Dermatological Procedures (Skin Biopsies, Excisions, Intra-lesional steroid injections) and slit skin smears etc.
Providing Supervisory visits and in the case of Leprosy, contact-tracing activities.

For the future, the size of the Dermatology Clinic is the limiting factor. Currently, the clinic is small and crammed up. If a bigger space is found, we hope to upgrade the clinic and buy equipment to provide more Dermatology services such as Cryotherapy, Phototherapy, Patch Testing and Laser services.