Patients outside of the Ba area have been flocking into the new Aspen Medical hospital in Ba for treatment, almost doubling the number of people coming to the medical facility last week, said Aspen Medical Fiji CEO Annette Owttrim.

The hospital anticipates seeing about 140-180 presentations per day at Ba Hospital but this has more than doubled to 340 per day earlier last week.

“The opening of the new Ba Hospital has seen patient throughput more than double with new patients travelling from outside the planned catchment areas to seek treatment,” she said.

“We welcome the fact that patients are seeking treatments and encourage this, and we are working towards providing additional staffing to reduce undue delays.”

Ms Owttrim said they expected patient numbers to remain the same because Lautoka is not doing general outpatients.

“There are only emergency and specialist outpatients and we anticipate that the presentations will remain similar but as we drive efficiencies in the hospital we will see a greater number of admissions and discharges.

“We wish to kindly request the public for their patience during this transition phase. There will be some inconvenience and we seek your understanding during this changeover.”