The Ministry of Health and Medical Services has today been further assisted with medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
The line Minister, Hon. Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete, in thanking JICA for their continued support, said they are working together on total quality management.
“As the Ministry of Health, we aspire to be very professional in our learnings to be very competent, be very comprehensive and improve the way that we do business processes,” Minister Waqainabete said.
“This is something we have been talking about in how we remodel or re-engineer our business processes from a hospital and health system based capability given the fact that we are faced with not only the burden of COVID-19 but also that health needs to be at the forefront of the discussions going forward.”
JICA Resident Representative, Ms Yukari Ono, in handing over the supplies, expressed her appreciation and respect to the frontline health professionals and officials of the Ministry for their continuous and great effort in the fight against COVID-19 in Fiji.
“This global pandemic situation where COVID-19 has been spreading across the world, preparedness for COVID-19 is even more important. The medical equipment and supplies amount to FJ$500,000 and I hope this will support the fight against COVID-19 in Fiji,” Ms Ono said.
“JICA’s provision of medical equipment is under our existing technical cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services namely the Project for Improvement of Health Services through 5S-KAIZEN-TQM.”
The Ministry's acting Head of Health Protection Dr. Aalisha Sahukhan acknowledged the support of JICA and thanked them for their long term assistance.
“We would like to thank you for the decades of support JICA has provided to Fiji and what we have learned from this coronavirus pandemic is that it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Dr. Sahukhan said.
“So donations such as today in the form of PPE, sanitizer and thermometers are support which will be needed for the long term because we do not see an end in sight until a vaccine is invented,” she added.