India mulls affordable healthcare in Fiji

Affordable healthcare facilities are a far cry for common man in the country, but the Health Ministry is preparing a roadmap for providing affordable medicare services to Fiji – a country that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited in November last year. A team of Health Ministry officials had recently visited the country in this regard. The move aims at fostering relations with Fiji.

“Given the fact that there is no drug manufacturing unit in Fiji, healthcare facility in the country is a costly affair. As Fiji is totally dependent on neighbouring countries for drug supply and treatment, the actual expenditure always exceeds their budgeted amount. The team has submitted a memorandum to their Fijian counterparts, which they will study and respond accordingly,” a senior ministry official said.

According to the officials, the plan is to set up drug manufacturing units in Fiji, which will help bring down public and private expenditure on pharmaceuticals there. Surprisingly, despite the health sector being largely public, the private sector is spending more than the public sector on pharmaceuticals in Fiji, amounting to about 25 million Fijian dollar.

“Fiji purchases drugs from America, Japan and Australia, which cost them more as most of the drugs supplied to the country are procured from India. We are ready to supply drugs to them directly and if it happens, their expense on medicines will come down drastically,” said the official, adding that Fiji is in the final stage of preparing minutes of the memorandum, paving the way for setting up drug manufacturing units that will meet healthcare needs of 8 lakh people in the country.

Modi during his visit to the country had announced $5-million fund to promote small business and village enterprises in Fiji.