Dr. Al Maha: Appreciating beauty, managing difficulties in Gulf Province

Over the last 10 months, Dr. Al Maha, has been has been sharpening his photography skills in one of the most beautiful locations in Papua New Guinea – the Gulf Province.

Using his trusty android phone, he has been taking stunning images of the wetlands and rivers during health patrols.

“This place made me realize how important a phone is. Now, I plan to buy a drone,” He said.. “Despite its development challenges, it is a very beautiful province with enormous tourism potential.”

Dr. Al Maha is Chief Executive of the Gulf Provincial Health Authority. He is the face of provincial health service delivery system. Since taking on top job in the PHA, he has been working to fix a backlog tasks in this beautiful logistically difficult province.

Many Gulf people don’t have road access to the provincial capital. For health workers, going home for Christmas is an expensive exercise and for years, frustrations have built up over unpaid leave fares.

“For our workers in Gulf, when they have to go on leave, the cost to send them only from Kerema… in some cases…it’s equivalent to flying them on a plane from Kerema to Port Moresby to Rabaul. That’s the cost of transporting them all the way to where they come from.

“So, for sometime, many of them have not been able to take leave and go to their villages and see their families. And so, that’s something that we addressed last year with the help of the provincial government,” Dr. Maha said.

Health patrols have taken taken him into marshlands, river communities and mountainous regions where many of his frontline staff live and work.

“We have a lot of concerns with our our staff who work out in the districts and in the more remote areas. While they get their pay into their accounts, access to banking is not there for them.

“So, for them to come into a station, like to come down to Baimuru, for example, to go there and swipe their cards. That’s several hours of paddling in a canoe or it’s a good amount of money if you’re going to to pay for a dinghy or just get a seat on a dinghy,” he said.

Gulf is one of the most neglected and least developed provinces in the country.

It sits on more than 30,000 square kilometers. It is largely a rural province with a small urban population in Kerema town.

As CEO, one of Dr. Maha’s tasks has been to get an understanding of the number of smaller health facilities that have closed over the last 10 years.

Many of the facilities are located in areas that don’t have mobile network coverage and no road access.

“We have only two (operational) airstrips, so we cant fly supplies to all of them. At the moment, the aircraft is under maintenance, so the only way to get there is to walk. It is very tough country.”

For many health workers and professionals like Dr. Al Maha in leadership roles, it is difficult to explain to decision makers that socioeconomic determinants like road access, cost of transportation and access to banking services, have a direct impact the delivery of health services. In many in many instances in the Gulf Province, socioeconomic determinants determine if a life can be saved.

For Dr. Al Maha, two things have inspired him to continue – documenting the beautiful landscapes through photography and the resilience of the people.