A-G gives Australian company June 2021 deadline
AN Australian company involved in a partnership with the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) to develop, upgrade and operate the Lautoka and Ba hospitals has been given until June 2021 to meet their tertiary care requirements.
This was the word from Attorney-General Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum.
He made the comment while speaking at the Fiji College of General Practitioners seminar in Natadola yesterday.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said while the transition headed by the Australian company had stalled as a result of the pandemic, work on the public private partnership (PPP) was continuing.
“That PPP was very much on foot and as you know, it slowed down because of COVID-19,” he said.
“There were certain milestones that Aspen Medical had to achieve and reach within a specific amount of time, but they couldn’t because of COVID-19 and they have now been given an extension until June next year.
“We hope there won’t be any other impediments to that.”
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the FNPF-owned company would continue to offer medical care for Fijians while also providing tertiary care such as open heart surgery.
“This has been much talked about in Parliament and in various other public spaces that those Fijians that go to Lautoka Hospital for various services will continue to get those services. They will not pay for it even though the PPP is in place. Government will pick up that tab. The entity that has the tender, Aspen Medical, is owned by a company that is actually 80 per cent owned by FNPF and the other 20 per cent is owned by Aspen Medical and Aspen Medical will be managing it.
“There are certain requirements there to provide certain tertiary care that are currently not available so things like access to open heart surgery, oncology services etc.”