Aspen Medical has officially taken over the management of the Ba and Lautoka Hospitals.
Fiji chief executive Annette Owttrim said 84 per cent of healthcare workers from the Lautoka Hospital and 79 per cent from Ba have signed up contracts with the Australian healthcare company, and the transition phase had been smooth.
“It’s been an incredible experience to work so closely with the Ministry of Health,” she shared in an interview at the Lautoka Hospital yesterday.
“I think it is a true partnership where we are working through the contracts and identifying areas where we can work together for the betterment of all of Fiji.
“The staff have been incredible, it is always challenging when you bring in a new organisation and you are working alongside the ministry but it really has been very seamless and a lot of those staff that have been working for the ministry of course are now coming over into Aspen Medical.”
Ms Owttrim said encouraged staff members who have not taken leadership roles to do so.
“What we are doing is encouraging our staff to take on more leadership and for some of the local staff that haven’t had those opportunities before, so we’d like to give them support as we’re going through that process.
“I have had some feedbacks that even though we haven’t done a lot of training yet, each and every individual and health professional must do the best job that they possibly can.
“And that’s starting to infiltrate and I think our patients will start to see that more as we go into the future.”
