The Ministry of Heath says the Labasa Hospital cannot operate its new $3million CT scan machine because the facility’s outdated electrical system cannot handle the power load.
However, a New Zealand-based urological surgeon, Dr Imran Ali, says the ministry just needs to pay Energy Fiji Ltd $108,000 to install electrical needs for the machine to function.
Dr Ali works with Friends of Fiji Health and ASAP Finance, which funded the scanner that has been sitting idle at the hospital for two years.
He says EFL informed him the payment has not been made.
“Doctors in Labasa Hospital and other hospitals in Fiji are doing a great job, but the lack of a CT scanner is hindering their work in Labasa,” he said.
“The situation, without a CT scanner is like a battle field in medicine, this is the 21st century and we need a CT scanner.”
Health Minister Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalava said the issue was not related to funding, but to long-standing infrastructure constraints that the Government was fixing.
He explained that the hospital’s electrical system had not been upgraded for more than a decade and therefore cannot support high-powered equipment like the CT scanner.
Dr Lalabalavu said work was underway to install a new transformer and power board to support not only the CT scan machine equipment.
“Rewiring of the entire hospital will take more than two years, but in the meantime, we’re trying to put in a temporary fix so the CT machine can be operational.”
He added that connecting the machine to the existing power supply could risk damaging equipment.
