THE Health Ministry today received equipment worth $500,000 from the United Nations Population Fund to improve health services for mothers during and after pregnancy.
Minister for Health Doctor Neil Sharma said the provision of the new equipment will bring relief to pregnant women and at the same time, assist Government in achieving the health related Millennium Development Goals.
“Ensuring safe motherhood and the introduction of contraceptives is one of the ministry’s key focus however we need to create more innovative ideas towards the improvement of family planning,” Health Minister Dr Neil Sharma said.
He highlighted that the Health ministry has increased the training of midwifery which will include nurses from the sub divisional hospitals to boost their service delivery for providing better health care.
He commended the UNFPA for their contribution and encouraged health officials to fully utilise these resources with a common goal of providing better health care for all Fijians.
The equipment include ultrasounds, CTG machines, delivery beds, foetal Dopplers and ECG machines.
Meanwhile, the Head of Obstetrician at Colonial War Memorial Hospital Doctor James Fong said this follows an assessment conducted by UNFPA four years ago which looks at technology gaps in maternity care.
“Through this assessment we were able to define the technological gaps in the maternity services at the various sub-divisional hospitals,” Dr Fong said.
MINFO