16 January, 2026, 9:15 am Central - 30°C Clouds

Samabula Health Centre in need of more personnel
We cannot replace what we lost – Dr Fong

Samabula Health Centre in need of more personnel

We cannot replace what we lost – Dr Fong

By Navitalai Naivalurua
08/09/2023
Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong

The Samabula Health Centre is in need of more staff to assist in the daily running of services provided at the Health Centre.

Speaking to fijivillage News, Staff Nurse Poonam Ratnam says they don’t have the personnel to provide all services.

She says if people start coming to them for their COVID-19 booster shots, they will need more hands, and if not, they might need to close some services, such as Family Planning.

Ratnam says they will also need more manpower to create awareness in the community because a lot of people will be questioning themselves why they have to take another shot when they’ve already taken four shots.

Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says what Fiji has lost in losing some of its experienced nurses, doctors, and medical professionals cannot be replaced.

He says what they can do to reduce the impact is by ensuring that they are smarter with the way they use the health force.

Dr Fong says they are working on a number of different avenues with the senior managers to ensure that they can work on the Human Resource job description to be able to mitigate some of the impacts.

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