Health Minister, Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete speaking in Parliament [Source: Fijian Parliament]

Delays and waiting time tops the list of issues raised on the Ministry of Health’s customer care toll-free line 1-5-7.

Speaking in Parliament, Health Minister, Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete says of the more than six thousand calls received since the line went live in June of 2017, 90 percent of the issues have been dealt with.

“The Ministry has registered a cumulative total of up to as of last week 6, 161 tickets, 90 percent of these tickets have been addressed and considered closed with identified processes in places in place for improvement.”

In addition to calls, Fijians can also text or email their concerns and complaints to the Ministry to address.

He says the next biggest concern they’ve been notified of is unsatisfactory treatment and poor staff attitude which makes up around 10 percent overall of their issues.

“The highest feedbacks received so far Honorable Speaker is 23 percent on delays and waiting time. On this the Ministry has strengthened over the last one and half years and continues to strengthen processes to address certain areas such as reducing waiting for medical reports from 4 weeks to five to 10 working days. Patients visiting the emergency departments can be assured that within four hours of getting to the emergency department that they would be seen depending on case severity.”

Dr. Waqainabete adds that triage processes have also been strengthened across all medical centers and hospital outpatient clinics to ensure those most sick are seen first.