950 doctors in service
FIJI has about 950 doctors in service, says Health and Medical Services Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete.
He said the World Health Organization recommendation was one doctor per 1000 people and with Fiji’s population at 884,000, the country was well above this.
“When I started work, there were less than 200 doctors in the service,” he said.
“Within the last seven to 10 years, the number of doctors in service has astronomically gone up.
“As we speak, we have nearly 950 doctors in the civil service, so we are already hitting the globally ideal ratio.
“There are many nations in the world that do not have the numbers that we have.”
Dr Waqainabete said having a large number of doctors available had made it possible for Government to contribute to local and international programs.
“We have now the luxury of being able to share our staff domestically and also offshore.
“Like with the Sai Prema Foundation medical centre in Nasese, the doctors and nurses that serve here are all Ministry of Health staff.
“We deploy staff to the Middle East to the Golan Heights, Lebanon and we have actually run the United Nations hospital in Syria for about three years.
“This was on a rotation and we had about 20 medical officers working there.”
Dr Waqainabete said the ministry was also able to respond to local events quite rapidly because of the large cadre of doctors available.
“Last week, we had people going to Kadavu in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Sarai.
“We were not able to do that before and are able to do it now because we have the numbers.”
As we speak, we have nearly 950 doctors in the civil service, so we are already hitting the globally ideal ratio. – Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete