The Health Ministry is dealing with an underpowered electrical circuit.

Permanent Secretary Doctor James Fong says this is why most life-saving equipment is not functional in key hospitals across the country because it requires more power than the current circuit can supply.

Dr Fong says this issue was first identified at the Navua Hospital.

The Ministry of Health will need to fix its electrical circuit before it acquires further modern laboratory equipment.

“The electrical circuit is underpowered to meet the ongoing demands so we are trying to bring in new equipment’s, this is the same thing in Levuka, we are trying to bring in new equipment, new laboratory equipment and ultrasound equipment but we can’t make it functional because the electrical network is not strong enough.”

Dr. Fong confirms that this issue is causing a lot of fire incidents in hospitals.

“So now we have to re-do a lot of that electrical networks, we had the same experience in Labasa where there was a fire because the electrical network was struggling with the load.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry is working closely with key partners to ensure that Fiji’s public health standard is enhanced.