Ba will boast the country’s most modern public health facility when the multimillion-dollar Ba Hospital opens its doors early next year.
Australian firm Aspen Medical, owned by Health Care (Fiji) Pte Ltd, is working with the Health Ministry to open the hospital early 2022.
Health Care (Fiji) Pte Ltd CEO Annette Owttrim said they were waiting for the ministry to hand over operations at the hospital to them.
“We are working on looking at the Ba Hospital in terms of equipment and to see if there needs to be some work done because the facility, although it is brand new, hasn’t been used for a couple of months so we are looking into that,” she said.
“As soon as we have that sorted, then we should be ready to open the hospital to serve the greater Ba area and that should happen very soon.
“For the Ba Hospital, we hope to be moving in at the very beginning of the New Year and taking over that hospital and then following up with Lautoka.”
Ms Owttrim said their management of operations at the Lautoka Hospital could also include continuing its COVID-19 services.
“It will be until the ministry is happy that we take that over and we will be running that as well and, no doubt, we could have it as a COVID facility as well.”
During the 2021/2022 National Budget announcement earlier this year, Attorney-General and Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said as part of the public-private partnership arrangements with Health Care Fiji Ltd, the Ba Hospital would start operations in December this year.
He said the Lautoka Hospital was scheduled to commence operations in March next year and its services would include open heart surgery. He said Government was providing $20 million with an additional $25.7m under the Health Ministry for the running of the Lautoka Hospital.
