The Fiji Medical Association has been told that the state of the country's largest hospital in Suva is so poor it would be closed if it were privately operated.
The Fiji Sun reports that the warning has been given by the president of the Association, Dr Mary Schramm.
Dr Schramm, a former medical superintendent of Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital, says the state of the bathrooms and sluice rooms in the old wing is worse than sad and if it they were not government buildings, they would be condemned out of hand.
She says the maternity unit is even more crowded now than when it opened in 1980 and in the Outpatients Department waiting time for the sick is worse than ever.
Dr Schramm says she has visited three divisional hospitals and seven subdivisional hospitals in the last few weeks and was saddened to see shortages of consumable items, inadequate buildings and hardworking overstressed staff.
She has called for the urgent identification of resources and investment in health professionals to address the concerns.
