A MEDICAL company registered in Fiji has offered to assist Tuvalu in various health areas.
Sahyadri Specialty Pacific Hospital Ltd Fiji’s officials had a meeting with the Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga in Suva on Monday night.
Tuvalu has been sending patients to Fiji, mainly for kidney dialysis, and it has a budget of $A3 million ($F4.7 million) for its medical treatment scheme every year.
Mr Sopoaga said during the meeting that his government could not continue to support the patients anymore, adding there was an increase in airfares from Tuvalu to Suva.
He said the Tuvaluan Government had to cut the expenses under the medical treatment scheme by 50 per cent.
SSPHL official Durdamya Munibhargav told Mr Sopoaga and his delegation that the company was willing to supply medicines to Tuvalu and also provide advanced machines, including for dialysis, to the country.
Mr Sopoaga said he was excited about the possibility that a dialysis centre could be established in Tuvalu.
“There are other islands in Tuvalu apart from Funafuti, which is exposed to sea spray,” he said.
“The machines can go rusty, but there is no problem in putting the machines in outer islands, as it will provide a long life for the machines.
“I’m so excited and very appreciative to the people of India as we are getting our medicines from there and I’m also grateful to my friends from SSPHL for their proposal.”
Mr Sopoaga said the proposal by SSPHL meant that Tuvalu could focus on building its resources in the medical field.
“Hopefully with this, our people can get treated in Tuvalu and the expenses under our medical treatment scheme will also come down.
“It will develop the skills of our doctors.
“Even though the proposal is for health issues, the whole idea is to build resilience of islands on health, climate change and the sea level rise.”
