The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Prof Biman Prasad, says a lot of work needs to be done in order to improve Fiji’s health sector.
Speaking during his visit of the Labasa Divisional Hospital yesterday, Prof Prasad said Government is committed to addressing these challenges to provide better services not only for the people of Fiji, but for civil servants working for the Ministry of Health.
“Government’s philosophy is to listen very carefully, dialogue and understand where the problems are, because there are so many problems in the health sector, and that is why we have set in a process of a National Fiscal Review Committee and the National Economic Summit, where we are going to discuss ideas on to how we can deal with these,” he said.
Also, Labasa Hospital Superintendent Dr. Jaoji Vulibeci highlighted some of the issues the Hospital faces which include donated high-end equipment’s that continuously breakdown, machines over 20 years old that are only functional with frequent expensive and delayed repairs, and officers leaving the Ministry for better pay and facilities overseas.
However, the Minister for Finance indicated that Government we are trying to unblock some of the arteries, so that there is a very clear flow of process and decisions making, so we can achieve efficiency in the way things can be done.
“We know that they are very big challenges for particularly nurses – I hear resignations every day, and we want to make sure that we do something that can make people that are choosing to stay, more comfortable –, in terms of the facilities, infrastructure, living conditions, quarters – all these things put together determine how effective we as a group can deal with some of these problems,” Prof Prasad added.
The Minister concluded his tour yesterday.
