Aspen Medical will take over the management of the Lautoka and Ba Hospitals from today. Previously operated under Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Aspen Medical is seeing a smooth transition.

Today, 84 per cent of workers at the Lautoka Hospital and 79 per cent of workers based at the Ba Hospital, will join the Aspen Medical team.

Aspen Medical CEO Aspen Medical Fiji Chief Executive Officer Annette Owttrim led a team of executives like the Chief Nurse of Australia, Alison McMillan, the Australian College of Nursing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kylie Ward and the General Secretary for the Fiji Nursing Association, Filomena Talawadua on a tour inside the Lautoka and Ba Hospitals yesterday.

Effective from today Ms Owttrim said all those staff members who were elected to join the Aspen team would join the payroll for Aspen Medical.

She highlighted that everyone had a choice but a majority of the workers would be joining the team.

“It’s been an incredible experience to work so closely with the Ministry of Health, I think it is a true partnership where we are working through the contract and identifying areas where we can work together really for the betterment of all of Fiji,” Ms Owttrim said.

“The staff have been incredible, it is always challenging when you bring in a new organisation and you are working alongside the ministry but it really has been very seamless and a lot of those staff that have been working for the ministry of course are now coming over into Aspen Medical.”

“Facilities Ms Owttrim mentioned that the facilities at the Lautoka Hospital were “certainly below where we would like them to be”.

In the next couple of months, she said works that would feature a modernised Lautoka Hospital would take place.

“There’s a lot of work which the public can’t see at the moment because there’s a lot of planning that goes on,” she said.

“What you will see in the next couple of months is the foyer to the Lautoka Hospital will be all modernised with a small coffee shop going in.”

“The next few months after that will be the finalisation for the new construction of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite and the CSSD (central sterile supply department) and the cardiac catheterization laboratory (cath lab).

“And then by the time that’s finished, you’ll be seeing the start of a new build, which is out to the back of the hospital.”

Once the facilities were rebuilt,she assured it would be up to international standards. Ms Owttrim also said the group would work towards getting a Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation.

“So the challenge in the facilities, there’s not as hard as making sure that we have a standard of care and that comes from the ongoing education,” she said.

Feedback: nicolette.chambers@fijisun.com.fj