Government rules out public-private partnership model for CWM Hospital for now

The Government has ruled out introducing a public-private partnership (PPP) model at the Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital for now, saying it will first assess the performance of Aspen Medical's management of Lautoka and Ba hospitals before considering any expansion.

Acting Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr Luisa Cikamatana Rauto said there were no immediate plans to extend the PPP model to Fiji's largest referral hospital.

Responding to questions on whether the Government was considering a similar arrangement for CWM Hospital to improve service delivery and operations, Dr Luisa said the ministry would first evaluate the outcomes of the existing partnership.

"At the moment, no, but those are the things that we learn from what we have at present with Aspen, whether some other hospitals may want to go into a similar arrangement, and that's where we will have to come to the negotiation and see what lessons are learnt and what we can put on the table," she said.

Aspen Medical currently manages Lautoka and Ba hospitals under a PPP agreement, making it the Government's only benchmark for determining whether the model should be extended to other public hospitals.

Dr Rauto said any future decision would depend on the lessons learned from the partnership and would require careful negotiations.

Her comments indicate the Government is taking a cautious approach, with no plans to introduce a PPP at CWM Hospital until it has assessed whether the Aspen Medical model has achieved the desired outcomes.

The comments come as CWM Hospital remains under scrutiny over its ageing infrastructure and service delivery, while the Government continues to pursue other reforms in the health sector.