The Health Ministry is in need of purchasing new medical equipment since a lot of it has become old, and unfortunately, our rate of supply is still not keeping up with the need.
This was highlighted by the Permanent Secretary of Health, Dr James Fong when questioned by the media on how the Ministry is dealing with aging medical equipment in hospitals.
He says they have been getting more equipment in, but they have incurred a large gap in terms of their ability to provide the services that are required from these machines.
Dr Fong says purchasing the machines is a little bit limited because of their inability to get the source market to provide them with a lot of those machines and consumables.
He adds in the world, Fiji is considered a small buyer.
When questioned on what machines they need to purchase, the Permanent Secretary says a lot of it is laboratory machines used in the operation theatre and other parts of the health care service.
He says the machines they need will all have to do with either diagnosing, testing or monitoring.
Dr Fong says when the world closed down during COVID, all their replacement plan and maintenance plan went out the window.
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