The Ministry of Health is looking at ways to increase its warehouse capacity to store its medical equipment and consumables.

Permanent Secretary, Dr James Fong, says the Fiji Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Services warehouse in Vatuwaqa is full.

Dr Fong says this has been caused by a backlog of supplies due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

“It just so happens, that many of the orders that we did, some of them from two years ago, were impeded by the inability to ship them across. I am just working with a few partners to create some warehouse capability so that we can store it, track all the storage and ensure that we can distribute it but ensure that the distribution is logged into our system. “

Fong adds that a new tracking system called “M-Supply” will soon be rolled out to track the amount of stock in health facilities across the country.

The Permanent Secretary says through this new initiative, health officials will be able to keep track of their medical supplies and order more when faced with shortages.