Decentralisation of Outpatient Services from Colonial War Memorial Hospital to the Health Centre in the Suva Subdivision

ABSTRACT

Patient choice forms a key part of health service improvement and forms a major determinant in patient health care delivery. At a time when the population of Fiji has access to 24 hour banking services and extended supermarket services, the outpatient services at health centres remained in the eight hour access, from 8am to 4.30pm. The Valelevu, Makoi and Raiwaqa health centres have been providing extension of service hours from 6.30am to 10pm on weekdays and 8am to 4pm on weekends, from 2nd March and 15th April, 2009, respectively. Ths concept is to be extended to all six health centres in the Suva Sub-division from the 31st of January 2011. Decentralization is about making services more accessible to the community, in other words, bringing the services closer to where people reside. A study of the health facilities in the Suva Sub-division are provided with statistical analysis and needs for future expansion of health facilities with the necessary infrastructural improvements or developments, staffi and medical supplies. The report provides recommendations to operationalizing the decentralization process by 46.4%. Th average number of patient arrivals for year 2010 was 7637 patients per month (251 patients/day) and for 2011 it was 4095 patients per month (135 patients/day). In 2010 the trend for patient arrivals has been a plateau whereas in 2011 a gradual decline reaching to a steady state of patient arrivals from September till the month of December was seen.