Attorney General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has stressed that there is a need to have greater collaboration between the private and public health systems to see that Fijians get the quality health services they need.
Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted this while officiating at the Fiji College of General Practitioners Annual Awards Dinner at the Intercontinental Resort and Spa in Natadola.
He says this was already happening in other jurisdictions where private doctors had their clinics but dedicated a few hours in the public health system.
He says government had been exploring this scheme which was along the lines of having a family doctor.
Sayed-Khaiyum says information on medical care was being sought from Australia and New Zealand, and the Fijian government had approached a number of private doctors to join this scheme.
He adds purely from a commercial perspective, General Practitioners can have a lower margin but a higher volume in this scheme.
He says this will not only help by way of saving the patients the need to travel long distances to access medical care but also improve productivity.
Sayed-Khaiyum says people can have a quick check-up and go to work as opposed to someone who has to spend four hours in a queue and gets paid on an hourly basis so gets their pay deducted.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the number of visitation or consultation in hospitals and health centres in 2019 was 2.9 million visits.
He says 71 percent of these people went to small health facilities.
He says 61 General Practitioners are in operation around the country.
