Location: Westin, Denarau
President of Fiji College of General Practitioners, Dr. Ram Raju,
Members of Fiji College of General Practitioners,
Chief Executive Officer, Land Transport Authority,
Chief Executive Officer, Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji,
Industry Stakeholders,
Members of the Media,
Invited Guest,
Ladies and Gentleman,
Bula Vinaka and a very warm welcome to you all.
It is my pleasure to officiate at the Fiji College of General Practitioners Medical Seminar.
I’d like to begin by thanking the Fiji College of General Practitioners for hosting and moderating this event today. The Members of the Fiji College of General Practitioners, I thank you as well for your continued support towards the work done by the College.
I’d also like to thank all the medical professionals for your hard work, compassion, and commitment during this challenging time. They’re among the heroes who have emerged from this crisis, risking your own health to serve Fijians. The nation is indebted to you and you all deserve our respect and appreciation.
As we move forward, and as the pandemic continues to evolve, the health care sector must continue to deliver high-quality care to all patients.
Fortunately, we’ve made significant progress in our understanding of this human crisis, our ability to combat it, and our efforts to help patients suffering with it.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
You would have heard this week in Parliament, our national priority at this point in time is rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations and immunisation of our citizens. There is a race for vaccines globally. The Fijian economic recovery relies on medically-sound and consistent vaccine administration. And this is where health professionals will play a fundamental role.
Of course, our priority for Phase 1, will be our frontliners, those manning the borders and our ports, medical officials, hoteliers, airport staff and their most immediate members. We’ll then look at Fijians with pre-existing conditions and those over 60 years and those over 18 years. We need at least 630,000 Fijians vaccinated to ensure that Fijians are protected against infection, which will allow us to open up our economy safely.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m certain that you, as health professionals, would better understand that there is no easy answer when it comes to dealing with such a pandemic. We still have much more to learn about, with many unanswered questions, especially as there are variations to the virus recorded around the world. And we need to not only treat patients with the virus, but help mitigate the spread as we seek effective therapeutics and safe and effective vaccines.
The Fijian Government, in partnership with key industry stakeholders, including a lot of you here today, has been working collaboratively to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our community. Even as private sector practitioners, you must be willing to step in and support our National Vaccination Programme.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me reiterate the points made by the Hon. Attorney-General at the last Fiji College of General Practitioners Seminar in November 2020. The GPs and the Fijian Government need to work together for the benefit of all Fijians. We want to pilot a project that will see Fijians visit GPs and the Government pays for that service. However, to date we have not seen the FCGP come forward for this partnership.
As healthcare professionals, your role in society is ambidextrous. Your responsibilities not only center around containing this global pandemic, but far reaching to medical fields in Dentistry, Podiatry, Optometry and Chiropractic, to name a few. This profession is characterised by a strong commitment to the wellbeing of patients, high ethical conduct, mastery of ever-expanding body of knowledge and skills and high level of autonomy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today’s seminar is dedicated to implementing medical examination standards for our drivers and seafarers. This will be a new era development of a guiding principle to assist medical practitioners, ship-owners, seafarers’ representatives, seafarers, drivers, vehicle owners’, regulatory bodies and other relevant persons with the conduct of medical fitness examinations of serving seafarers and drivers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To make standards work in Fiji, we need partnership to ensure that the standards are not only implemented but complied with at all times. We need a whole-of government effort, Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF), seafarers, drivers and respective key stakeholder collaboration.
In Fiji, the LTA and MSAF play significant roles in ensuring that our sea and road users are safe, and in accordance with strict issuance of Drivers Licence and Seafarers Class Licence. One such requirement is the assessment for issuance is a medical examination report. And this is mandated under the Land Transport Act 1998 and Maritime Transport Act 2013 respectively.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Driving a motor vehicle or steering a ship is a complex task involving perception, judgment, adequate response time and appropriate physical capability. It is, therefore, our shared responsibility to ensure that public service drivers and seafarers contribute to the foundation of safe transportation for all Fijians.
This will be achieved by having safe service providers. So today is well-timed for us to start the conversation on how we can achieve standards for medical examination of drivers and seafarers.
Safety is everyone’s responsibility — no matter where we go, what we do and with who we travel with. So, I entrust everyone present here today to promote safe medical practices and standards, for the benefit of all Fijians, whether as passengers, pedestrians or maritime travellers.
Ladies and Gentleman,
On behalf of the Ministry, I once again acknowledge the continuous support of the Fiji College of General Practitioners, who have been at the front line of inculcating code of ethics for medical practitioners in Fiji.
And to everyone here today, I encourage your active participation and incumbency. You are the ultimate catalysts and our greatest partners in implementing medical standards in relation to land and sea transportation in Fiji.
With those few words, I officially declare this seminar open.
Vinaka Vakalevu, Thank you!