Open-heart surgery at Pacific Specialist Healthcare Hospital in Nadi. Photo: Shalendra Prasad
A private hospital in Fiji is promising "state of the art care" for medical tourists worldwide, and right now it has its eyes set on New Zealand.
Pacific Specialist Healthcare (PSH) chief executive Parvish Kumar said that his hospital is now accepting referrals for Kiwi patients.
Kumar told RNZ Pacific that they can offer complex heart, brain, and spine surgeries for "a fraction" of the cost of private care in New Zealand, and with no wait time.
"We are clearing patients here in Fiji and in the region, and we do have the space and scope to do more. So I thought, let me just extend this also to my fellow New Zealanders," he said.
"Maybe at the same time we could also give them about a week or two week holiday in Fiji."
Kumar said that his hospital can offer coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), a common heart surgery, for around NZ$21,000.
According to PolicyWise.co.nz, that would cost between $50,000 and $75,000 in Aotearoa if done privately.
PSH also offers spinal cord decompression surgery for around $14,000 to $18,000, and major brain tumour removal for between $21,000 and $28,000.
Private spinal surgery in New Zealand ranges between $30,000 - $250,000, according to PolicyWise.
The added bonus: a week of recovery spent relaxing in Suva.
Although these types of surgeries are free under Aotearoa's public health system, more and more patients are facing wait times exceeding four months.
According to the Ministry of Health, the number of patients waiting longer than four months for treatment ranged from over 27,000 and over 37,000 from March 2024 to February 2025.
Kumar said that he wants to make Fiji the premier destination for medical tourism in the Pacific, in line with the Fijian government's goals to improving both tourism and health infrastructure.
Photo: PSH Group
The Fiji government allocated FJ$451.8 million "to deliver quality health care services to Fijians" in its 2024-2025 Budget.
In 2022, approximately two percent of Fiji's tourists engaged in health and medical activities during their visit, according to Tourism Minister Viliame Gavoka.
Gavoka said that he would like to see Fiji's health infrastructure develop in order to attract more medical tourists.
"Fiji aims to emulate successful examples like India, which attracts many Fijians and Pacific Islanders annually for medical treatments."
This comes at a time when Fiji's public health system struggles to meet demand, thanks to rapidly aging health infrastructure and a shortage of supplies.
RNZ reported in 2024 that Fiji's mental health system needs to nearly double the number of beds available for mental health patients.
Kumar told RNZ that the state of Fiji's healthcare system has nothing to do with his hospital.
"We are independently and privately funded."
He said that he receives no funding from the government, but is currently pushing for tax relief.
"In any country, the private system can always spearhead or fast-track development compared to the public system, because the public systems normally have a lot of bureaucracy and red tape."
Dr Sarah Fairley, Medical director, Kia Manawanui Trust Photo: Kia Manawanui Trust
'Abundance of caution'
However, doctors in New Zealand are generally skeptical about medical tourism.
Dr Sarah Fairley, cardiologist and medical director of the Kia Manawanui Trust, told RNZ that PSH's offers seem too good to be true.
"I think this is probably the first time that I have seen, and certainly my colleagues have seen medical tourism related to cardiac surgery."
"I think people should really embark on this with an abundance of caution."
Dr Fairley said that she believes most doctors would steer away from recomending that their patients go overseas, especially when it comes to the heart.
A direct flight from New Zealand to Suva can take anywhere between 3 to 5 hours. That is enough time in the air, Dr Fairley said, for significant health risks to present post-surgery.
"if you've had cardiac surgery where you've had a surgeon that puts an incision in your chest, you have to have a cut in your breast bone or your sternum to get to the heart, and that's essentially a fracture"
That would increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis, or a blood clot in a deep vein.
"I think certainly even a three hour flight in my head would be not without risk from a DVT point of view."
"What is the cost of emergency evacuation or repatriating you back to New Zealand, where that can be managed?"
Kumar said that, at the end of the day, a New Zealand doctor has to sign off on a patient coming in order for his hospital to accept them.
"After the surgery has been done, then we'll give them the clearance and then they can fly back."
In response to Dr Fairley's comments, Kumar said that PSH uses a team trained in advanced countries.
"What we did was to simply recruit the same heart surgeons that the advanced hospitals in India were utilising, and together with the surgeon, we also recruited the support team from operating theatre staffs to ICU and recovery staff."
"Our cardiac department has had an excellent 100% success rate and we are very proud of this.
"While the NZ health system does provide open heart procedures for free to its residents/citizens, patients who are not that critical many times end up waiting to get the procedure done."
Ultimately, that failure of Aotearoa's public health system to meet demand is the reason why this conversation is necessary, Dr Fairley said.
"This is a reflection of the fact that the current system is failing lots of our patients."
"There may be people that are getting into this position where they're desperate, I think fundamentally, that's the opportunistic thing about health care overseas."
