Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong has praised the efforts of the senior directors and executives of Punjas for their contributions towards primary healthcare.
His comments follows the announcement on Monday that the Punjas Medical Health Centre in Lautoka would undergo a $500,000 building extension.
“One of the issues that we always had with regards to primary healthcare in Fiji, is that on many occasions, primary healthcare is limited to consultations only,” he said.
Dr Fong said the Punjas Medical Health Centre was a step forward and helped them sort out the added pressure for patients to been seen, especially outpatients.
“The fact that you have added pharmacy, laboratory services and other services including maternal and child health care speak volumes of the expanded role of this initiative in supporting primary health care.
“We are trying to figure out ways and means for us to ensure that the primary health care space would connect to the facilities that we are creating in Lautoka and Ba hospitals under Aspen Medical.”
Punjas chief marketing officer Gopal Jadhav during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Health Centre’s extension project said diabetes seemed to be a major concern among our communities together with NCDs.
“Having a blood test lab facility at the newly extended centre will serve larger concerned population so that they start their therapeutic process quickly,” said Mr Jadhav.
