THE Ministry of Health is facing staff shortages that are affecting service hours at the Ba Health Centre and Tavua Hospital.
This was confirmed by permanent secretary for Health, Dr Jemesa Tudravu, who said the issue is linked to human resource (HR) challenges currently faced by the ministry.
“In terms of services at Ba Health Centre and Tavua Hospital, these are two of our very important facilities in the Western Division,” Dr Tudravu said.
“I know that the question was asked to the Honourable Prime Minister, an important question in terms of access to health services.
“And we are trying to do as much as we can to deliver health services to our people in these two areas.”
Dr Tudravu said the reduced service hours were directly related to staffing capacity.
“That’s linked to our HR capability at the moment, and currently, we do have some challenges with our HR.
“So whenever we have adequate HR, we extend the number of hours.
“For reasons beyond our control, we’ve lost staff from the Ministry of Health, and that also has an impact on our ability to deliver health services for extended hours.”
He said the ministry had previously extended operating hours at some facilities up to 10pm, but has to adjust these when staffing levels dropped.
“For us, it’s an ongoing health service delivery issue, and we deal with it all the time as we continue in our agenda to deliver health services.”
