North GP Services To Be Available Soon

Labasa and Savusavu have been identified as new areas of inter­est where private medical general practitioners’ ser­vices would be available to the public.

This was after an expres­sion of interest was called by the Ministry of Econo­my for interested General Practitioners wishing to get contracted in the Northern Division.

During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Government engaged the services of 14 GPs and one medical centre that were all based in Viti Levu.

Ministry of Economy, Manager/Coordinator-In­frastructure Sector, Kamal Goundar, said this was done to improve the reach and quality of general outpa­tient medical services to the public when major health centres and hospitals were overwhelmed with COV­ID-19 cases.

“So, this way hospitals and government health centres will cater for serious cases and the mild cases will be seen at private GPs, reduc­ing patient traffic,” he said.

Mr Goundar said the ex­pansion of general prac­titioner services to Vanua Levu was a key part of their wider community engage­ment.

He said the scheme was a game-changer for Fijians as they would have adequate general outpatient services available at their various designated private centres.

he said the number of general practitioners that would be on contract in the North would depend on the number of applications they receive followed by their vetting process.

The cost of these servic­es would be borne by the Fijian Government at an agreed price with individu­al GPs and private medical centres.