Six buildings at the Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital are “structurally unsafe and below World Health Organization standards, and need to be demolished or reconstructed” while seven are “structurally safe… but need immediate repairs”.
These were some of the findings of an engineering assessment conducted in 2019 into the hospital and revealed in Expression of Interest (EOI) documents released by consulting and engineering services company RPS Group for master planning services for CWM Hospital, a project sponsored by the Government of Australia under its Fiji Program Support Facility (FPSF).
RPS Group is a division of Tetra Tech International Development Pty Ltd, currently contracted by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to manage the FPSF.
The EOI invitation, dated April 2, 2024, provided a comprehensive insight into the state of deterioration in Fiji’s “largest and most important healthcare facility” and noted that no major works have been undertaken since the engineering assessment in 2019.
“The CWM Hospital is Fiji’s largest and main referral hospital. Located in the capital Suva, the hospital spans across 14 buildings sets and accommodates 535 beds, 31 wards and 8 operating theatres,” it stated.
“In 2022, CWM Hospital managed 26,118 admissions, 6771 births and 316,446 outpatient visits. However, these figures are likely significantly underreported.
Engineering assessments of CWM Hospital in 2019 found that of the 14 building sets, six are “structurally unsafe & below World Health Organization standards, and need to be demolished or reconstructed” (and) seven are “structurally safe… but need immediate repairs”.
It further quoted the World Bank’s aide memoire dated October, 2023 having found that “many construction materials are experiencing rust and deterioration due to various factors such as natural hazards (tropical cyclones, humidity, droughts), in addition to seismic activity’, and ‘the older buildings lack consistent maintenance, impacting both healthcare services delivery and operational efficiency’”.
“For the past two decades, the CWM Hospital has operated without a comprehensive Master Plan or a national or central division Clinical Services Plan,” the RPS EOI further stated.
“Consequently, the available data regarding hospital usage suffers from substantial gaps, rendering it unreliable for effectively managing both present and future healthcare requirements. This deficiency extends to the capacity to forecast demographic shifts and anticipate trends in disease patterns.”
The Australian Government had stepped in to help Fiji fix the situation after formal request in November last year by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) to the Australian High Commission in Fiji.
Australia’s High Commissioner to Fiji Ewen McDonald disclosed yesterday that a company to lead this work will be announced soon.
“We’re working very closely together on that to deliver an infrastructure master plan,” he said during a joint announcement with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Biman Prasad on Australia’s $87million funding support under the upgraded Vuvale Partnership programme.
“We know how important that work is not only to the Deputy prime minister and the government but also to the people of Fiji. So I expect the company that will lead that work will be announced in the next few weeks. So that will then start that work underway. It’s not a task that will be done overnight but it’s very important that the master plan is done well.”
In March, Australia had announced a $14.7million support to fund the CWMH master plan.
