Retaining medical professionals remains one of the Ministry of Health’s key focus as it continues to grapple with the loss of doctors and nurses to greener pastures.

Minister for Health Dr Atonio Lalabalavu said while the ministry could not compete with the attractive offers from overseas employers, it was doing its best to improve working conditions, including increasing salaries of doctors and nurses.

“The Government has worked to ensure a pay rise for nurses and all civil servants across the board,” Dr Lalabalavu said.

“Doctors are already the highest paid civil servants straight out of their training institutions.

“We are working to improve the remuneration of allied health workers as well.”

He said career growth and development was also a priority for Government.

“We are supporting the medical specialist training of multiple different specialities which will work towards improving our tertiary care.

“Soon Fiji will have multiple neurosurgeons, cardiologists, nephrologists and other specialists.

“We are also supporting the specialisation of nurses to ensure they have career pathways for development as well.”

Dr Lalabalavu added that workforce planning was an area focus that Government was working on with development partners to implement as well.

“In partnership with the WHO we are conducting a whole ministry workforce assessment.

“This will ensure that we work towards having the right number of doctors, nurses and allied health staff, which will go a long way towards reducing the rates of burnout currently being experienced in many areas of health.”

Dr Lalabalavu joined members of the Fiji Medical Association in Nadi yesterday for critical discussions on the challenges currently facing the health sector.