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Fiji’s hospitals and health centers will be upgraded with $9.4 million dollars worth of equipment as part of efforts to streamline health services says Minister for Health Dr Neil Sharma.
Sharma said all major hospitals in Fiji will be upgraded with $1 million worth of equipment.
He said the Health Ministry is looking at capacity building in terms of getting medical expatriates from overseas and at the same time strengthening the medical labour force, locally.
“When $9.4 million worth of technology will arrive we will need the expertise to run the machines and run the equipment and we are looking at capacity building.”
“There are close to about 22 new graduates coming out with Masters Degrees at the end of this year and we are still negotiating with overseas sources for short-term contracts and we also looking at international agencies to provide support in the area which we will enhance gradually,” he said.
Sharma said while getting expatriates may be one option, the better one that the ministry will pursue will be to train local doctors and nurses.
”We will need to be able to get to quality expatriates and we will need to be able to train our locals and we will need to be able to balance that whole exercise.”
He said to enable the empowerment and strengthening of the local labour force, the ministry from next year is going to provide opportunities to local doctors and nurses to get training overseas.
