Shania Shayal Prasad 
The Raiwaqa Health Center is confident that more people in the area need treatments and check-ups.
However, Doctor Erum Samreen says a lot can still be done to encourage people to visit the facility when the need arises.
Samreen, who is in charge of the centre, says they are working to enhance their presence and commitment in the community.
She says the centre caters to the majority of Fijians in the informal settlements around the central division, and the numbers they receive are just the tip of the iceberg.
“So we need to go to them rather than expect them to do it; we would like to enhance that commitment to our community. That is badly needed at the moment because our health centres have a large mobile population and informal settlements, right? So those informal settlements are the ones that need retention and enhancement. And that’s how we can actually become less connected with the community.”
Dr. Samreen adds that they are actively working with community health workers.
“And they are the bridge between us and the community, right? So we need to actually make them more digitally savvy so that they can actually do these things better by collecting the data in their homes. We can actually treat them by sitting here at the telemedicine centre, which is gaining a lot of popularity now because it has solved a lot of problems just sitting in the office and in their home.”
Meanwhile, Raiwaqa Health Center is working on enhancing staff training and keeping up with digitalization.
This way, they aim to carry out their operations effectively and efficiently.
