Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) cost Fiji’s public sector $591million in lost productivity in 2019.
That, according to Dr Devina Nand, director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, is an underestimation, meaning, Fiji could be losing millions more from NCD-related conditions suffered by the national workforce.
Dr Nand was speaking at the TOPEX 2023 convention in Nadi, which ended yesterday.
“That there is a lot of loss in productivity due to NCDs. From the $406 million in 2015, we’ve jumped to the $591m mark. That’s direct and indirect losses,” Dr Nand said, in an interview with The Fiji Times.
“That’s money that can be invested better into development. So it’s an opportunity cost to the development of any nation.”
She said the statistics were underestimations because of the way Fiji reported diseases.
“These only reports the public domain and doesn’t take into account the private sector,” she said.
Highest estimates showed that NCDs directly cost the public sector $192m in lost productivity while indirectly costing a total of $399m, according to data shared by Dr Nand at TOPEX 2023.
