Aspen Medical to begin cardiac surgery at Lautoka Hospital by the end of this month

Aspen Medical will begin cardiac surgery at Lautoka Hospital by the end of this month.

This comes as the National Federation Party has raised concerns that the people that were supposed to benefit from it are still waiting for the much promised world class health and medical services.

While responding to questions by fijivillage, Aspen Medical says the pandemic has impacted supply chains globally, including the supply of clinical equipment such as that required for cardiac surgery.

They say all countries across the Pacific have also incurred significant impact on the availability of clinical staff within their respective health systems due to the most recent waves of influenza and COVID this year.

Aspen Medical has assumed responsibility for managing Lautoka and Ba Hospitals since 1st April 2022 and 9th April 2022 respectively.

They say Aspen Medical has purchased $3.3 million of medical equipment including the recently commissioned state-of-the-art CT scanner at Lautoka Hospital, computers to digitise the health services, and equipment to commission the Ba Hospital to international standards through a total refurbishment of both operating theatres and the central sterilising and supply department.

The hospital says in addition, $5.5 million state-of-the-art medical equipment has been purchased and is awaiting arrival in Fiji.

They further say cardiac surgery involves screening, selection, and stabilisation of the patient, in order to optimise the outcome for the patient and this involves echo cardiology and other high-end investigations and interventions.

Aspen Medical says other essential aspects of patient care include the management and stabilisation of co-morbidities such as diabetes and obesity which must be undertaken prior to such intricate surgery.

They say only once patients are optimised for surgery and recovery, as is the international standard, can surgery be approved by management to be undertaken.

NFP Leader Professor Biman Prasad says the FijiFirst government has been fooling and misleading the people of Fiji by promising the start of free open-heart surgeries at the Lautoka Hospital from May.

He says this revelation comes amidst extremely reliable information which he received about Aspen Medical’s intention to now out-source medical services to at least one other provider despite initially signing an agreement in January 2019 to manage Lautoka and Ba hospitals.

The NFP Leader says this raises the question of Aspen Medical’s competency and plans to provide state-of-the-art health and medical services.

Prasad says he has received calls from many concerned heart patients who have told him they are only being screened and given clinic dates for review instead of being booked for any type of surgery whatsoever.

The NFP Leader says the patients told him they have been informed that nothing has been done to facilitate this critically important treatment.

He says the question that naturally arises is why government has been misleading the people of Fiji.

The NFP Leader says they now demand an independent inquiry to determine the truth.

Aspen Medical says they have not borrowed any money from FNPF and each of their shareholders have contributed start-up funds in accordance with their shareholding.

They say the Board composition is in accordance with the Special Purpose Vehicle Shareholder Agreement and no amendments have been made to the extant Agreements with FNPF.

They say Concession Agreement has always allowed for sub-contracting, under the management of Aspen Medical.

Questions have also been sent to the Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong and FNPF. They are yet to respond.