Vunisea Hospital will have a new doctor by March.

Minister for Health and Medical Services Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said once the new doctor arrived, the nurse at Vunisea would be transferred to Soso, Naceva.

The lack of health staff in Kadavu was raised by villagers of Tavuki during the talanoa session yesterday.

Dr Waqainabete said once the intern nurses had completed their internship, then the rotation of nurses who would be deployed to the rural areas would begin.

“At the moment they have enough workers to meet the daily workload,” he said.

“It’s always a challenge trying to get staff over to the rural areas because of their preferences.”

He said a lot of health officials were opting to be transferred to Labasa, North and Seaqaqa and it was difficult to convince them to work in other rural areas.

In total, there were 37 health staff working in Kadavu.

No Jab, No Job

Meanwhile, he highlighted that about 80 Ministry of Health and Medical Services staff had lost their jobs due to non-vaccination.

These included doctors, dentists, nurses and other allied health professionals.

This made up about one per cent of the ministry’s total workforce.

Vaccination

The ministry intended to roll out vaccination for children of Kadavu in the next few weeks.

Vaccines for the same have been received from Australia and some doses had been administered to those due to receive their second dose.

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