Ward Six Psychiatric Unit at the Port Moresby General Hospital: a historical review and admission statistics from...

The objective of this study was to document the acute psychiatric service offered by the Ward Six Psychiatric Unit at the Port Moresby General Hospital by means of admission statistics.

The study was designed to cover the period 1980 to 1989, for which reliable medical records were available. Data were collected on the total number of psychiatric admissions per year, diagnostic classification, occupation, province of origin of the patients, age and sex. A brief history of Psychiatric Ward Six is added.

The results showed that the total number of admissions to Ward Six from 1980 to 1989 was 725. There were 462 (64%) male and 263 (36%) female patients. The ratio of male to female patients was 1.8 to 1.0. Diagnostic classification of the patients was done by the International Classification of Diseases (Ninth Edition). The most common diagnosis was schizophrenia with 358 patients (49%). The majority (63%) of the patients were unemployed. A large number of the patients, 295 (41%), were from Central Province. The young age group 21-30 years accounted for 267 (37%) of the patients. The mean annual incidence for the ten-year period of the study was 5.4 patients per 10,000 population. There was an increase in the annual incidence from 3.6 per 10,000 population in 1983 to 7.9 per 10,000 population in 1989.

In developing countries, including Papua New Guinea, hospital utilization studies and statistics provide an initial source of information. These may be followed later with community surveys and field surveys when more resources including funding become available.