Ministry of Health & Medical Services National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2016-2020.

The National Strategic Plan 2016-2020 is the overarching document that will provide overall strategic direction for health over the five year period. This NSP presents the reviewed Mission, Vision and Values of MoHMS, with the vision encompassing a 20 year outlook and the “wellness approach” to health. The strategic framework has been developed after extensive situation analysis to gauge where Fiji is in terms of meeting global health indicators. This evaluation has facilitated the development of a document outlining the goals for 2020 and the objectives showing how get it. Cross cutting issues such as gender, poverty and urbanization that also affect health status were considered in developing this document. This NSP has been guided by the Roadmap to Democracy and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development (RDSSED) with due consideration to the post 2015 development agenda. Efforts have been made to align to Fiji Government priorities such as extension of opening hours and improving accessibility to services.
The plan is organized according to two Strategic Pillars, the first focusing on the delivery of health services to the population and the second focusing on systems strengthening to improve overall health sector performance. Strategic Pillar 1: Preventive, curative, and rehabilitative health services. Strategic Pillar 2: Health systems strengthening. The first Strategic Pillar focuses on delivery of health services to the population and is divided into the following key priority areas: 1. NCDs, including nutrition, mental health, and injuries; 2. Maternal, infant, child and adolescent health; 3. Communicable diseases (CDs), environmental health, and health emergencies. The second Strategic Pillar focuses on health systems strengthening and is based on the WHO Health Systems Framework, “systems building blocks”: 4. Primary health care, continuum of care, quality, and safety; 5. Productive, motivated health workforce; 6. Evidence-based policy, planning, implementation and assessment; 7. Medicinal products, equipment & infrastructure; 8. Sustainable financing.
Its mission is to empower people to take ownership of their health by providing quality preventative, curative and rehabilitative services through a caring sustainable health care system under the following values: Equity; Integrity; Respect for human dignity; Responsiveness; and Customer focus.
Its General Principles are: 1. Health in all Policies approach; 2. Healthy Islands concept; 3. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); 4. WHO Health Systems Building Blocks (Leadership/governance; Health care financing; Health Workforce; Medical products, technologies; Health information and research; Service delivery) and 5. Universal Health Coverage.
The Environmental Health department is responsible for the promotion and protection of public health from environmental health risk factors such as pollution, unsanitary conditions, poor quality water supply, illegal developments, improper waste management practices, breeding of disease vectors and poor food quality.
The National Strategic Plan is a platform for multi-sectoral collaboration to improve health in Fiji. This National Strategic Plan provides overall strategic direction for Fiji’s health sector over the five year period from 2016-2020. This document was prepared by the MoHMS in consultation with key health sector stakeholders in order to serve as a platform for multi-sectoral collaboration, in alignment with key national, regional and international commitments and frameworks. These include the Fiji Government Manifesto, Fiji Green Growth Framework, Healthy Island’s vision for the Pacific, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and others. Reducing communicable diseases requires improved surveillance and better partner coordination. The Priority Area 3 deals with: Communicable disease, environmental health, and health emergency preparedness, response & resilience. There is a need for improved multi-sectoral approach to risk management and resilience for communicable diseases, health emergencies, climate change and natural disasters.