By GINNAH MINI
THE Port Moresby General Hospital is promoting health and wellness for its staffs from all the departments by launching the 30 days ‘Step for Life’ challenge to ensure that all their employees are healthy and well for them to attend to patients.
Approximately 500 employees have took part in this program and are already 10 days into the challenge on a journey to look after themselves before they look after patients.
Program Administrator and Staff Clinic, Dr. Andrew Ame, said that the challenge requires staffs to download an application called ‘Speedometer Step Count’ to record their steps. The participants are required to screenshot their steps and send to organizing teams for recording points and eventually awarding rewards.
“What we are trying to promote is health and wellness,” Dr. Ame said.
Dr. Ame said that the hospital’s management has recognized the need for this sort of programs to make sure that employees are active.
“While we are concentrating and focusing on our patient care, its our duty to also be healthy so that we can continue to be productive and serve the nation,” Dr. Ame said.
During the launching of the program, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Port Moresby General Hospital, Dr. Paki Molumi said that doctors work in stressful environments and this program will improve their physical and mental health to look after sick patients.
“This program not only help our lives, but also improves the lives of our patients which is our core business,” Dr. Molumi said.
Dr. Molumi encouraged the doctors and participants of the program to invest in themselves before other things.
“Let’s look after ourselves, lets change the culture of this organization and look after our patients,” he said.
The participants from the different departments have formed 45 teams and they commended this initiative as they spend much of their time looking after patients and they often forgot about their own health.
The winning team of the challenge will be awarded with a trophy.