HCF: $10m funds services, not profits

The $10 million in monthly taxpayer funding allocated to Health Care Fiji (HCF) Limited is not being pocketed by shareholders, says HCF chief executive officer Gavin Whiteside.

Mr Whiteside clarified yesterday that the funding was used to pay for services that keep Lautoka and Ba hospitals operating, and is not a profit payout to Aspen Medical, the company’s shareholder.

“That $10 million a month funds staff salaries, the medication, the lights that are on, the vehicles that we have,” he said.

“The insurances to cover all of the clinicians that work on site, the workforce support mechanisms, the operations that are all in the back of the house.”

Minister for Finance Biman Prasad, who has been skeptical of the Aspen-HCF partnership established under the Bainimarama government, says his position remains unchanged.

He said it was there from the start and is still in place today.

“The idea of a public-private partnership was to get the best out of management, innovation, technology, and training to deliver these kinds of services,” said Mr Prasad.

“We are reviewing the current arrangement and the agreement. We will have to clearly set out the assessment of demand and the types of services we need to provide,” he said.

“What sort of services CWM is going to provide, what sort of services Labasa is going to provide. We are looking at the whole health ecosystem in the country,” he said.

HCF is owned through a partnership between FNPF, which holds an 80 per cent share, and Aspen Medical, which holds 20 per cent.

“The partnership we are developing will continue to provide services that can become a model for the entire country, improving medical facilities nationwide,” he said.

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