Hospital’s operating theatres out of service

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Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong.

Four out of the eight operating theatres at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva have not been working for at least six months. This, according to Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong.

To help reduce the backlog in surgeries, the Fiji Cancer Society has contributed about $10,000 to pay for doctors and nurses to conduct cancer-related operations on Saturday.

Dr Fong said the issue for all four theatres was linked to electrical faults that had affected the airconditioning units.

“They have been down for at least six months,” he said. “The airconditioning system needed to be changed, however, there are underlying electrical wiring issues that need sorting to support the change.”

Fiji Cancer Society chief executive Belinda Chan said they gave the $10,000 to aid their patients by reducing the backlog.

“There are at least four theatres that are not working in the hospital so the women who come for screening, their surgeries are prioritised,” she said.

“The doctors are doing a fantastic job, it’s just that they asked for assistance and we are always willing to help the health system.”

Mrs Chan said facilitating the surgeries was their intervention to assist the health system.

She said they were also looking to expand their services to the Lautoka Hospital.

“From late last year, we have been doing surgeries in the Suva hospital and it’s great that we will be able to provide service in the Lautoka Hospital whereby the first surgery might be done next week.”

The airconditioning issue affecting the four operating theatres was discussed in Parliament in May last year.

At the time, Health Minster Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete had said the ministry was working on replacing the airconditioning systems at the CWM Hospital but did not provide a timeframe.

He had said the airconditioning units had started to malfunction at the end of 2019 and not all refrigeration companies in Fiji dealt with surgical operating theatres.

Dr Waqainabete had made the comments in response to questions from National Federation Party parliamentarian Lenora Qereqeretabua.

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