Hoteliers, MOH support upgrade of hospital operating theatre services
With ongoing efforts to enhance health services, the Sigatoka Hospital in partnership with Coral Coast hoteliers will embark on the renovation of the hospital’s existing operating theatre services. Subdivisional Medical Officer Nadroga/Navosa Dr Amos Zibran said the support of Coral Coast hoteliers had been significant in undertaking development plans for Sigatoka Hospital.
“We have a very supportive Board of Visitors and we work closely with Coral Coast Hoteliers Association,” he said.
“Their tremendous support and partnership led to developments such as the improved maternity wards, the new helipad and now we will start with the renovation and refurbishing of the operating theatres.
“The Coral Coast hoteliers had a charity golf day and they raised about $77,000, which will be directed towards refurbishing of the operating theatres so that when the visiting teams come to Fiji we are in a better position to accommodate them.
“Currently, the Sigatoka Hospital has one operating theatre that needs to be upgraded and the plan is to develop another operating theatre.
“Therefore, having two operating theatres will boost our capacity to do more operations and surgeries here at the hospital. “Currently we only handle emergency operations and eye operations that are conducted the overseas visiting teams every year,” Dr Amos said.
He said the renovation of the operating theatre was expected to the completed by the end of this year and was expected to also enhance the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.
In terms of better patient care, Dr Zibran says the strategy for his team was the care and compassion for those who seek their services.
Sigatoka Hospital serves the population size of more than 52,000, with geographically-isolated communities.
On a daily basis there are more than 300 patients attended to by the outpatient services department and the hospital has 75 beds within the patient wards.
The Sigatoka Hospital has its own helipad for patient evacuation during times of emergency.
With the support of KOICA, the Sigatoka Hospital has developed it Tuberculosis (TB) lab that enables the team to have a one-stop shop in terms of conducting TB tests and that has improved the turnaround time to confirm the TB tests and diagnosis.
Apart from the subdivisional hospital there are 14 other health facilities within the Nadroga /Navosa, which includes six nursing stations and eight health centres.
The upcoming new facility of $30 million that is currently in progress is the Keiyasi Sub-divisional hospital that will serve more than 10,000 Fijians in the province of Nadroga, Navosa and the highlands of Ba.