Colonial War Memorial Hospital

The Ministry of Health has been allocated a total of $540 million in the new budget.

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad says that $450 million has been allocated to the Ministry and $90 million for the running of the Ba and Lautoka hospitals under the Public Private Partnership arrangement.

Professor Prasad says given the years of neglect and state affairs in the health sector, the country needs continuous increased investment and focus.

He adds that in partnership with the Australian Government, they have already embarked on a major technical work to put together a master plan for the redevelopment or relocation of CWM hospital.

The Finance Minister says that the long-term goal is the construction of a state-of-the-art national referral hospital which is modern, resilient and patient-centered.

In March this year, the Australian Government had provided around $15 million towards the CWM infrastructure master planning and they are in discussion with other multilateral partners like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank for future funding options.

He adds other partners have also expressed their willingness to come on board as the final details are completed.

Prasad has also commended the Indian Government for the grant towards construction and running of a 100-bed super-specialty hospital in Suva.

“We have made good progress in identifying the land in Nasinu behind the Fiji National University and the construction design works and other preliminary works are currently underway. We have also seen major investments in some of our health medical facilities, private health medical facilities, including the Pacific Specialist Healthcare, Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital, for which we are again providing a Government contribution of $4 million in this budget, and many other providers who are expanding and modernizing their services.”

Prasad says they are continuing with the public-private partnership with the General Practitioners, but to reduce the abuse, in the last budget, they have introduced an income threshold of $30,000 to access these free services.

He adds that those under the Social Welfare Scheme, Free Medicine Scheme and Receiving Kidney Dialysis Subsidy get an automatic access without any further assessment or income verification.

“They just need to present their welfare or free medicine card at the participating GPs. So far we have paid $19 million to extend these services and in this budget we are estimating an additional cost of $5 million. To assist those on kidney dialysis, we have allocated $3 million for the continuation of the $180 per session subsidy for dialysis patients, which was increased from $150 to $180 in the last budget.”

For the procurement of drugs and medical equipment the government has announced an allocation of about $96 million in this budget.

For procurement of biomedical equipment, $15 million is provided in this budget.

The Minister announced that for capital construction and maintenance works, they are providing $12 million for the interior works at the Labasa Hospital, refurbishment and upgrade of the urban and sub-divisional hospitals, health centres and nursing stations, refurbishment of Savusavu Health Facility and the construction of a new rehabilitation centre in Tamavua.

An additional $3.8 million is provided specifically for minor upgrade and maintenance work at all our health facilities around the country.