Fiji will soon boost the Pacific’s first cancer treatment facility when the Oncology Department at the Lautoka Hospital is completed, says Aspen Medical and Health Care (Fiji) chief executive officer Annette Owttrim.
She said the pioneering facility was part of upgrade plans for the hospital which had been finalised.
“We have finalised the plans and refurbishment and upgrade of the Lautoka Hospital and they are the plans that we have shown the Australian Minister for the Pacific Senator Zed Seselja,” she said.
“He will be standing on the ground where the first facility for oncology services for the Pacific will be built.”
Ms Owttrim said the facility would focus on the treatment of cancer patients and offer services that were not available in Fiji at present.
“So this means that all Pacific Islanders will be able to come to Fiji to have radiation therapy, have their chemotherapy and the surgeons will be upskilled so no longer will they have to have a full mastectomy.
“They’ll only have to have the lump taken out and keep their breasts.
There are just so many stories like that.
“So we’ve now designed everything and we are going through the process of tendering and then we hope to be building in the middle of next year at the Lautoka Hospital.
“We will be managing Lautoka even before we start building.”
According to Aspen Medical, the upgraded 305-bed Lautoka Hospital would continue to provide general inpatient and outpatient services, Emergency Department, maternity services, neonatal and children’s services, operating theatres and will deliver enhanced clinical services across a range of specialities including renal dialysis, chemotherapy, maternity, oncology, coronary care and intensive care.
