“We simply cannot build full-service hospitals in every community or on every island in Fiji but we must make sure that all communities have access to basic health care.”
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama made this comment while officiating at the opening of the new Ravitaki Nursing Station in Kadavu.
He says they want to ensure that basic services like health care reach all the people and communities, but especially in areas such as this, which are far from the medical infrastructure of large cities.
This new nursing station will serve nearly 1,000 people in the tikina of Ravitaki and the Tavuki district.
Bainimarama told the people in Ravitaki that they have many advantages over people in the cities as they have easy access to root crops, fresh fruits and vegetables and sea food.
He says increasing number of Fijians are suffering from what are known as “lifestyle diseases,” and conditions, like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, even in their young and most productive years, when they have so much to contribute to their families and communities.
He told the villagers that building new health facilities, training more nurses, paying doctors higher salaries or buying more ambulances are not the only ways to improve health in Fiji.
He says the choices people make and the way they determine to live their lives and raise their children are equally important.
