Minister for Economy and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum

Aspen Medical Pty Ltd will take over the operations of the Lautoka and Ba Hospitals by the first half of next year.

Minister for Economy and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum confirmed this in Parliament saying the two hospitals will also undergo a name change.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the partnership is currently under the observation period as the government is looking at requisite arrangements.

“ Aspen Medical has already started working or doing on their observation period on things like the staffing requirements, they’ve already starting their own procurement system in respect to call for tenders for the purchase of necessary medical equipment and supplies and again Mister Speaker the hospital has put in place a new enterprise resource planning”

He adds that a new asset register has also been developed at both hospitals to ensure everything is accounted for especially when Aspen takes over the management.

“ There has not been an assets register done for quite some time for the hospital, now which will, of course, give us a good understanding of the staff level, the equipment, the supplies, only recently in a big cleanup literally of Lautoka Hospital they remove 22 truckloads of written-off equipment, other furniture, etc. that has been cluttering the corridors.”

Under the new partnership, the Lautoka Hospital will be known as the Lautoka International Hospital managed by Aspen while the Ba Hospital will be re-named as the Ba Regional Hospital.