The Fiji Medical Association (FMA) president Dr Basharat Munshi said the current health budget needs to be increased ten-fold if Fiji is to achieve excellence in health care.
He made the comments while speaking at the FMA West Mini-Conference in Nadi yesterday, saying “economic prosperity would equate to health prosperity”.
“If we do economically better as a country, it should equate to better health care outcomes for everyone,” he said.
“Let’s become more economically productive by spending a bit more per capita on health.
“Let us increase the percentage of the budget that we spend of the total GDP on health care.
“We have been using a model, $300-400million every year — it’s nowhere near enough.
“That’s probably one-tenth of what we need.
“So, we need to become smarter, more innovative. Start listening to the right people and start addressing this big elephant in the room which is financing.
“And I must also make a point here that the money that’s allocated to health care generated by healthcare must be used for that.
“It should not be siphoned off for any other purpose.”
