Patients and staff at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva are likely to see a significant easing of daily difficulties after the installation of new lifts in the hospital’s West Wing moved into its final stages this week.
CWM Superintendent Dr Luke Nasedra said the hospital — which normally operates four lifts in the West Wing area — has for much of the past several years been effectively relying on a single working lift at the Lancaster area while the others remained out of service. That long-running situation left the children’s ward without a working lift and forced food and supplies to be moved by hand or on staircases, creating logistical strain on clinical teams and support staff.
The Ministry of Health issued a government tender to decommission the old systems and install four new lifts serving the West Wing, the children’s ward and the Lancaster area. Work contracted to Otis Elevator Company began toward the end of last year with technicians removing the old equipment and installing new shafts, cabins and control systems. The lift located outside the Lancaster area facing the ambulance bay in the West Wing has already been completed and is now operational.
Dr Nasedra told media that substantial structural work on the children’s ward and Lancaster lifts has been finished and that technicians are now installing and calibrating sensors and other electronic systems on each level. “The Lancaster lift sensors were completed earlier this week,” he said, adding that once technical adjustments are finished the lifts will undergo inspections and be commissioned by occupational health and safety authorities before being opened for use.
A setback was identified in the installation of the fourth unit, the food service lift that delivers rations directly to the hospital kitchen. Workers discovered part of its supporting structure was made of wood, requiring additional structural reinforcement before the new lift can be safely installed. Dr Nasedra said this discovery has necessitated extra work; however, he confirmed efforts are under way to address the issue.
Despite that delay, hospital administration is aiming to have the newly installed lifts fully operational by the end of the month. When completed and certified, the replacements are expected to restore full vertical access across key wards and logistic routes, easing the burden on staff who have managed patient transfers and deliveries around the repeated breakdowns.
The upgrades form part of broader efforts to modernise infrastructure at Fiji’s largest hospital, where aging mechanical systems had increasingly hampered efficiency and patient care. Hospital officials say the new lifts will improve patient access, reduce transfer times and enhance safety for both staff and visitors once the final inspections and commissioning are concluded.
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