The Minister for Health and Medical Services, Dr. Atonio Lalabalavu, acknowledged the difficulties faced with the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative. This acknowledgment came in response to a question posed in Parliament by independent Opposition Member Jone Usamate regarding the advantages of the PPP approach in the healthcare sector.
Dr. Lalabalavu explained that the PPP initiative was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to enhance the delivery of medical services. He noted that every agreement carries inherent risks, and if the preparatory work is inadequate, the current challenges stem from these risks. He identified several risks, including a lack of understanding and application of the PPP concept, weak institutional capacity within public sector agencies, dependencies on donor-driven PPPs that may lose momentum, and insufficient monitoring.
Despite these challenges, he highlighted that the partnership with Healthcare Fiji, a concessionaire to Aspen Medical, has led to the introduction of new services that have improved healthcare standards at Lautoka Hospital. The enhancements include a modern Accident and Emergency department, new radiology equipment, an operating theatre, and a cardiology unit that manages low-risk cardiac cases along with open cardiac surgery.
Dr. Lalabalavu expressed that while there are tangible benefits from the initiative, the learning and implementation processes were not executed properly. He emphasized that the Ministry of Health, under his leadership, is now taking a more involved approach in examining concessionaire agreements from the beginning.
Additional benefits of the PPP initiative include outsourced laundry and security services as needed. Currently, under the free medicine scheme, 59,000 individuals are registered, while 490 are enrolled in the kidney dialysis subsidy program. The GP scheme has seen a significant increase, with 59 GPs engaged in the program as of now, up from 17 in 2021. Furthermore, security services have been outsourced at four hospitals, and housekeeping services at five hospitals, including CWM, Labasa, Nadi, Sigatoka, and Navosa.