The Papua New Guinea government has declared a state of emergency aimed at improving the physical state of Lae's rundown Angau hospital.
The state of emergency allows the government to immediately access funding in a trust account intended for a rebuilding of the hospital.
Our correspondent in Lae says several million kina of that fund will be used to fix up parts of the hospital.
Oseah Philemon says the hospital is in a very sorry state apart from the accident and emergency facility which has recently been refurbished.
"So that is probably the only part of the hospital that looks good. The rest of the hospital is in a terrible state. The operating theatres, most of them are not operating. The beds are very old, very very old mattresses. They have run out of sheets. The hospital is also running out of drugs. It's terrible and it has been like this for a long time. It is very demoralising for the staff too."
Oseah Philemon in Lae.