Shania Shayal Prasad 
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr. James Fong
The Health Ministry is facing significant challenges due to the aging medical equipment, affecting its ability to deliver essential services.
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr. James Fong notes that the supply rate is falling behind the growing demand.
Dr. Fong says this has resulted in a substantial gap in the Ministry’s capacity to provide care using these machines.
He adds these machines are critical for diagnosing, testing, or monitoring patients.
“There was a significant impact when the world closed down during COVID; all our replacement plans went out the window; all our maintenance plans went out the window; so now the machines that we could have maintained and kept functioning, we could not maintain them well enough, so we now have to purchase new ones.”
Doctor Fong says they are also facing difficulties securing markets to purchase machines and consumables.
“Unfortunately, in the world, we are considered small buyers, and it is not that easy for us to find a regular supplier who will live up to the requirements of what we need.”
The Ministry already has allocated budgets for the procurement of medicines and equipment.
The Health Minister says they are working to the best of their ability in sourcing and getting the required items on board for use.
