Our health care system
SO upgrade works on the Colonial War Memorial Hospital are expected to begin soon. Now that’s arguably one of the best news in a long time! Minister for Public Works Ro Filipe Tuisawau said meetings with the Health Ministry had been held and plans were in place “to immediately start upgrading within the next two to three weeks”.
He was speaking in Parliament this week, laying the platform for something many people have been silently crying for.
“There was a question on why was the Construction Implementation Unit (CIU) created and shifted from PWD?” he said.
“If you analyse the Office of the Auditor-General’s Report, there was basically no basis for it, no technical basis or professional basis for moving away the technical people from there into that office.”
In October last year, we reported on the agenda of the Coalition Government for the next four years, to transform the health sector.
We did mention that talking about our health system was important, as the challenges were overwhelming for many Fijians.
They’ve stared at a brickwall for so long!
From issues at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva to challenges faced by the sick at our other hospitals around the country, our health system appeared to be in disarray. It copped a beating in terms of confidence in services.
So it is with this in mind that we hoped for a change in fortunes, and for some improvement in service delivery. There had to be confidence placed on the system. That would come with improvement though.
We are encouraged by the fact that there is attention focused on health care. That means a lot for a lot of people.
In September, 2022, we wrote about shocking statistics. Every two seconds one person under the age of 70 lost his or her life to non-communicable diseases!
The World Health Organization, in a report titled Invisible numbers: The true extent of noncommunicable diseases and what to do about them stated major risk factors. They included tobacco use, an unhealthy diet, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, and air pollution which it insists could prevent or delay significant ill health and the large number of deaths from NCDs.
The tragedy was that NCDs were often preventable, it pointed out, and millions of people could avoid years of poor health and live longer, healthier, happier lives within their families and communities.
Most deaths could be delayed or even prevented by eliminating risks to health. It is when you consider the risk factors that we sit up and take note.
Rising NCD burden is estimated to cost the economy up to $591.4million annually, and according to Dr Jemesa Tudravu, the Health Ministry’s chief medical adviser, this indicated inadequate prevention and attention to its risk factors.
This takes us back to our health services and why there must be a concerted effort to drive improvement.
There must be a duty of care, and appreciation of the needs of the people. And there has to be a great sense of urgency. This latest revelation certainly is encouraging!