Levuka Hospital

Satish Nakched, Nasinu

The Levuka Hospital has been in existence for more than a century and there was a segregation between the White people and the other races.

The section for the colonial residents had separate individual cubicle rooms whereas it was the dormitory type for the other patients. The building window design was made for the tropical climate which had lovely large wooden windows that needed a window stick to keep it open and was subject to the cool Koro Sea breeze.

During its peak the building was painted white and the garden stones were applied with white wash. The wooden floor inside the hospital was varnished.

This hospital also had a maternity ward and was an entry point into existance for most of us, the Ovalauans, and others in Fiji who share a very strong sentimental attachment to their place of birth.

There was a dental clinic at the rear along the incline going up towards the Delana Methodist High School.

This hospital due to its central location also provided medical services to the entire Lomaiviti Group and a Government vessel was allocated and stationed in Levuka for this purpose. Next to the old hospital was a new and a modern multi-storey building which is still in use.

The old hospital has sadly deteriorated and is now on the verge of total destruction.

The doors and the windows are gone and the wooden portion of the building is rotten and poses some serious threat to the community.

I suggest that if this old building is of no use to the Health Ministry and Medical Services then it should be repaired and transferred to the Delana Methodist High School and be used as classrooms. It is close the school in any case.

The building design and the structure should be repaired to its original uniqueness and will greatly reduce the space shortage in the school. We need to preserve this piece of history at all costs because nothing has changed to our national treasure ever since its existence.