
Concerns have been raised after a 24-hour water disruption at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, including the Emergency Department, which affected patient care and hospital operations.
Water is crucial in clinical settings for surgery preparation, cleaning medical equipment, maintaining hygiene, and meeting patient needs like bathing and toilet use.
The disruption has added extra strain on staff and essential services.
The Ministry of Health says the issue is due to low water pressure. In response, water trucks have been delivering supplies to storage tanks across hospital wings to maintain services.
Assistant Minister for Health, Penioni Ravunawa, says hospital plumbers inspected a suspected defective diaphragm in the internal water system, which may be contributing to the low pressure.
Although the issue has been resolved, he says that the CWMH team remains in contact with the Water Authority of Fiji to ensure tanks are refilled regularly while efforts to fully resolve the issue continue.
FBC News has also sent questions to the Water Authority regarding the disruption.
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