The Raiwaqa Health Centre, which caters to hundreds of residents in the central division, needs expansion.

Acting Minister for Health Filimoni Vosarogo made the determination following a tour with representatives from the World Bank to the facility earlier this week.

Vosarogo noted that the health centre has limited space to carry out its daily operations.

He agrees that work must begin to meet the needs of the health centre.

“I just thought if there was going to be an expansion, it should be in front of the hospital rather than moving backwards.”

The head of the Raiwaqa Health Centre Doctor Erum Samreen says the Health Centre overlooks a large and increasing population; however, space is a major issue.

“And we can make our emergency bigger because we are seeing a lot of emergencies as well. We do need something bigger than this emergency. Because the other thing, the main purpose for us, is public health, right? So public health is something that needs to be strengthened because if we strengthen public health, we can reduce the load on our tertiary divisional hospitals.”

Meanwhile, the World Bank is currently carrying out a review of Fiji’s health sector.

With this, they will further identify areas for improvement and work towards implementing projects to do so.