A fiery exchange broke out in Parliament yesterday between Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad and Opposition MP Jone Usamate during questions on health professional training.

Opposition MP Alvick Maharaj asked what the Government was doing to address the shortage of allied health workers, saying “pharmacies are operating without a pharmacist, radiology departments are without radiologists” and most health centres were staffed by nurse practitioners instead of medical officers.

Prof Prasad said the Government was funding additional scholarships through the Sangam School of Nursing and the University of Fiji and had asked FNU to expand its capacity.

“Yes, we are taking steps to ensure that we increase funding, we increase scholarships in those areas, and we have also asked FNU to look at how they can increase the capacity,” he said.

“In some of these medical training skills, you need to look at the infrastructure. You cannot just take more MBBS students or technical training in areas where the facilities are not available.”

The minister then turned to migration, noting New Zealand lost 72,000 people in 2024 alone. He accused the Opposition of spreading misinformation.

“This will wash some of the hogwash from him,” Prof Prasad said, adding claims Indo-Fijians were leaving under the current government were “seditious” and designed to create ill-will.

Mr Usamate immediately objected, saying: “The minister must reply to a question, and it must be relevant and concise. We are talking here about training for health professionals; he has completely deviated from the topic.”

Speaker Filimone Jitoko ruled the response was within scope, but Mr Usamate pressed again.

“Seventy-five per cent of that was a direct attack on the honourable Leader of the Opposition. The question is asking about what we are doing about health professional training. That is what the focus should be.”