As health care services at the Lautoka Hospital continue to transition to new management under Health Care (Fiji) Ltd, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is preparing its staff members for the new move.
On Monday evening, Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete and Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong met a group of medical specialists to discuss the transition and some of their concerns.
“As you know it is exciting times, the Lautoka Hospital is going through its transitioning with Health Care (Fiji) and there are opportunities obviously available to our staff throughout the Western Division, not only for the region but throughout the whole of Fiji.
“The whole purpose as we all know is to improve our health care services and also provide opportunities for various treatments.
“That is why the Government has requested this strategy for a private public partnership.” He said while the transition had been running its course with Health Care (Fiji) Ltd, which traded as Aspen Medical, staff members still had their concerns.
“The specialists that we’ve found certainly have many opportunities available for them, but also they’ve had some staff concerns which we know deal with the proper HR mechanisms so it’s wonderful to actually meet them.
“It was time for us to come and have some discussions with them and also learn from them how best we can be able to learn from them how best we can look after our people in the Western Division.”
According to Aspen Medical, the transition phase for Lautoka Hospital includes major upgrades to existing facilities and training for staff to international medical standards for operation which began from April 1.
