Despite improvements in secondary and tertiary health care in Fiji, the lifespan of the average Fijian is a low 68 years.
According to Nadi Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Dr Ram Raju, the figure has remained static over the past 20 to 30 years.
“Fiji is ranked 133 out of all the countries in the world in terms of life expectancy, which is extremely poor,” Dr Raju said.
“Fiji’s lifespan is staggeringly low, with a total lifespan of 68.0 years.”
Dr Raju said the public-private partnership (PPP) implemented by the FijiFirst government in 2021 enabled Primary Health Care (PHC) to be outsourced to general practitioners (GPs) and appeared to be working well.
“Although there are major flaws in the PPP scheme, which was hastily programmed without proper consultation or discussion with the Fiji College of General Practitioners (FCGP), many eligible patients were able to receive the best quality of healthcare in the private sector,” he said, adding that despite the flaws, the scheme paved the way for PHC to be eventually diverted to the GPs.
“Primary health care in almost all developed nations is totally in the hands of the GPs and we have had several major conferences to allude to this fact.
“It was our long-standing goal to be the custodians of PHC and not the State hospitals where the General Outpatient Departments (GOPD) cater for the general public who cannot afford to see GPs.”
Dr Raju said the highest quality of primary health care was in the hands of general practitioners.
“Every country that has accepted this concept managed to reverse non-communicable diseases that eventually made an impact and improved their respective life spans.
“Their average life span is well above 80 years,” he said.
