Health system is to be left alone, it should not be touched, nobody should talk about it and nobody should undermine it – Dr Fong

Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong is hopeful that in time to come, it will be recognised that the health system is to be left alone.

With the ongoing campaign period and national elections coming up next month and the Health sector being one of the most talked about issues, Dr Fong says he believes they are at the cusp of being able to deliver high-level care.

He says during the COVID time, they developed command centres which have improved communications and they have also developed outreach capabilities, so their teams can go out and do outreach and at the same time, improve their retrieval capabilities.

He adds this means if people are ill, they can bring them in.

The Permanent Secretary says for the health sector to grow, it needs to be developed together with a lot of private-public partnerships.

Dr Fong says they need to have a lot of other private sector entities involved in providing health care.

He says this is exactly what is happening in Lautoka, where they are trying to get a lot of private entities to enter into their way of providing that service and making that service exist on Fijian shores for a sustainable period of time.

He adds private sector engagement does not come easy, and they are making sure that the private sector engagement actually delivers what they are supposed to deliver, and making sure that we get what we pay for.