DOCTORS are being left alone to make critical, potentially life-or-death decisions in Fiji’s hospitals, sometimes without a second opinion, essential diagnostic services or another doctor to call for help.
Fiji Medical Association acting president Dr Ronal Kumar has warned that the situation is putting both doctors and patients at risk, with some doctors carrying entire subdivisional hospitals alone overnight.
He said others were working after hours without access to blood tests, X-rays or scans because laboratory and radiology technicians were not being paid overtime.
“There are doctors in this country carrying a subdivisional hospital alone overnight, making decisions that ought to have a second opinion attached to them, with no one to call,” Dr Kumar said.
The warning was made during the association’s annual conference, where staffing shortages and deteriorating working conditions came under scrutiny.
Dr Kumar said registrars were being forced to cover rosters designed for a full complement of doctors, while consultants were supervising more junior doctors than they could safely manage.
He said the pressure was also driving doctors to consider leaving Fiji, with some already discussing registration requirements for Australia and New Zealand.
“Nobody leaves this country because they stopped caring about it. They leave because caring about it stopped being survivable.”
Dr Kumar said retaining doctors required the Government to address staffing, supervision, equipment, postings and workplace safety – not simply appeal to doctors’ sense of duty.
