Good news as the Ministry of Health and Medical Services has started the process of replacing the 6 critical elevators at a cost of about $1 million at the CWM Hospital.
Minister for Health, Doctor Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu has confirmed to fijivillage News that 4 new elevators for the hospital have already arrived, and installation will begin shortly by the contracted vendor.
The current elevators are about 30 years old, and there have been very concerning issues where critically ill patients needing emergency surgery have had to be carried down the stairs.
There was also an incident a few weeks ago where a nurse who is asthmatic, was stuck in an elevator after dropping a patient.
Photos were seen of the elevator left partially open with a mop handle to ensure the nurse does not get an asthma attack.
Doctor Lalabalavu had assured the people on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan in January this year that the elevators will arrive in the country in late February.
He confirmed today that next up is the installation, and planning has been ongoing from late last year on how that activity will be done while at the same time causing as less of a disruption to the ongoing healthcare service delivery to CWM Hospital.
He says the timeline for installation during his last briefing was 2 months.
He says some may ask why that long however the MOH is mindful of the fact that as they install the new elevators, the services must go on and as such they must plan around not to disrupt daily activities.
Doctor Lalabalavu says the duration of replacement of the 4 elevators will be up to 50 plus weeks as works have to be done in phases.
Meanwhile 2 new CT scan machines arrived for CWM Hospital late last month.
