THE revamp of the aged Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital in Suva under the Pacific Healthy Islands Transformation (PHIT) project will turn it into a state-of-the-art centre for medical training that will supply capacity for Pacific Islands, as the project forecasts the creation of 11,000 jobs across the Pacific’s healthcare sectors as a result of its intervention. PHIT is a $US239.5m ($F541.30million) health project, the first to be funded jointly by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under their new co-financing Full Mutual Reliance Framework (FMRF).
In its project appraisal document, the World Bank, which is the lead financier, noted the CWM’s critical role in the education and supply of the Pacific’s healthcare workers and how upgrading it will be central to the transformation of the Pacific’s healthcare system.
“Fiji, the largest country among PICs (Pacific Island Countries), plays a key role in training healthcare workers and providing specialised health services to the entire region.
“Many PICs rely on Fiji’s institutions for training, particularly for doctors, nurses and the allied health workforce.
“The College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Fiji National University (FNU) and the CWM Hospital are the main institutions responsible for training healthcare professionals in the region. “Between 2015 and 2022, almost 6500 health professionals graduated from FNU.
“Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu sent the largest volume of non-Fijian students to FNU, while smaller countries, such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru sent a significant proportion of their total healthcare workforce to FNU for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
“Healthcare students studying in Fiji undergo supervised patient care at various health facilities, with up to 60 percent of clinical attachment time spent at the CWM Hospital.
“This creates huge opportunities for PICs to standardize healthcare worker training and management, including accreditation.”
Under the project, $US70million (approx.$F159million) is budgeted for the overhaul of CWM, which the World Bank said is a major component of the project and includes starting the new referral and training hospital by building a Radiotherapy Centre.
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