Doctor Ashneel Ready to Serve Pregnant Women in the West
After an arm operation at the age of five, Doctor Ashneel Singh decided to pursue a career in surgery and advocate in women’s health.
Doctor Ashneel is a senior medical officer in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Unit at Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital.
He joined in 2017.
He started his career in 2015 as an intern in 2016 then became a medical officer Raiwaqa Health Center. He specialises in the care of women during pregnancy and childbirth and in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the female reproductive organs.
During this current COVID-19 situation, Dr Ashneel is serving as a frontliner at Rakiraki Hospital for the past three weeks.
He is looking after all Obstetrics and Gynecological cases from the Ba, Tavua and Rakiraki area.
“My work includes doing the speciality department
C-section (cesarean) delivery, looking after sick pregnant mums and gynae cases,” he said.
He said leaving his family behind at home was a sacrifice he made while serving his country.
“My wife, Dr Andrea Singh, is an Emergency Doctor at CWMH, and we are unable to spend time with our fiveyearold son because we have to compromise our family times with work,” he said.
Dr Ashneel is honoured to help his country and people with his medical expertise during this time of need. “I am happy to provide the best care for the women of Ba, Tavua and Rakiraki to the best of my ability,” he said. He said his team of doctors had fully operational operation theater set up in Rakiraki hospital which catered for the emergency needs of pregnant women, children and general surgical cases that were referred from Ba, Tavua and Rakiraki.
“This team is here because the border prevents people from entering into Suva and Lautoka, where most of these cases are reported and at the same time, they receive care and treatment similar to which they would receive in a tertiary hospital.”
“Until now around 20 cesarean sections and other emergency obstetrics cases have been carried out which otherwise would go to Lautoka Hospital,” he said.
Dr Ashneel said he was proud and honored to be part of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and he commended the excellent work done by the permanent secretary, Dr James Fong, and the minister, Dr Iferemi Waqainabete.
“If we wear masks, have good hand washing hygiene and have our CareFiji app installed then we will protect ourselves as well as our fellow countrymen. Let’s stay at primary prevention, you don’t want to know how scary it can become when we can’t contain this virus and go onto secondary prevention and tertiary prevention (preventing complications from the disease) and what would that mean in terms of resource depletion and the huge economic/health burden to our country,” he said.