Fiji’s health workers need greater investment in their working conditions and facilities, not just higher pay, Aspen Medical general manager Dr Rigamoto Taito says.
Speaking during the Fiji Medical Association annual conference in Pacific Harbour, Dr Taito said health workers faced significant challenges but continued to report to work and care for patients.
“We have to value our health workers a lot more,” she said. “We have to invest in them.”
Dr Taito said while pay was important, it should not be the only focus when considering the health workforce.
She said better facilities and accommodation were also needed for health workers.
“We have to think about the conditions of work they work in, and I hear about the facilities that they live in. I mean, we need to do better.”
Permanent secretary for Health and Medical Services Luisa Cikamatana the ministry was working to improve conditions starting off with nurses.
She said about 61 per cent of the ministry’s budget was spent on salaries, and the ministry was now reviewing its workforce budget to determine whether it had sufficient funding for the number of staff being paid, particularly those in acting positions.
She added the ministry continued to appoint people to acting positions and pay them in those roles, but it did not always have a clear picture of whether the budget could accommodate all the acting appointments.
She said the ministry needed to map its workforce to the services it provided, including the number of people, supplies and other resources required, and be more disciplined in implementing what it was supposed to do.
