Extension work at the Labasa Hospital’s operating thea­tres will begin in August.

This is after the Ministry of Health and Medical Services ap­proved plans for the extension.

Medical Superintendent Dr. Jaoji Vulibeci said this initiative had been done in recognition of the need to develop the Northern Di­vision and to improve the lives of people.

“The hospital will have four new operating theatres,” Dr Jaoji said.

“Overcrowding will be a thing of the past after the operating thea­tres will be completed. The people of Labasa will benefit from the newly built extension of the La­basa Hospital operation theatres.

“Thus the Government has tak­en the initiative to build new or extended hospitals and health centres like Makoi, Ba, Navosa, Nakasi, the new Waimaro Health Centre and Rotuma together with the extension of the Maternity Unit at Suva’s CWM Hospital,” Dr Jaoji said.

“These are the results of all the reviews and planning that have been done in all these years.

“It reflects on the FijiFirst Gov­ernment’s ongoing commitment to increase the accessibility of health services for all Fijians.”

Dr Jaoji said this was because the population in some parts of our country was growing rapidly and health services needed to keep up with those changes.

“Building infrastructure capac­ity is important, but we must inte­grate care and design in our health care facilities to improve our ser­vice for the needs of our patients,” he said.

“This Government fully supports the need to build capacity among our health staff and having good training rooms is an important as­pect of that.

“People living in the rural areas should now benefit from the pro­vision of these specialist services closer to home and saves them the cost of travelling to the Colonial War Memorial Hospitals.

“We are determined to make health services more accessible to our people,” he added.

Edited by Percy Kean

nacanieli.tuilevuka@fijisun.com.fj