Director Nursing,
Principal Fiji Nursing School,
Mr.Baxendale, WHO representative, 
Representatives of other Donor Agencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured to be here today.
Launching the Post Graduate Diploma in Midwifery is a milestone for School, Ministry and Fiji.

Maternal Mortality is one of the 8 Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 by the International community at the Egypt meeting. The aim was to reduce Mortality by 75% by 2015.Only a 5% reduction globally was noted by 2005.Much needs to be undertaken in the next 5 years globally and in Fiji.

Midwifery plays a major role in the women centred approach to maternal health, to reduce the mortality associated with childbirth. The Government of Fiji and the Ministry of Health takes cognition to upgrade training of nurses and to service delivery in this area.

The first New Zealand based curriculum commenced in 1964 and was a six-month program and ran till 1979.The Fiji program was incorporated in 1975 for locally trained nurses and continued to provide sterling midwifes into 2008.From 1980 the Lautoka Hospital campus started training of midwifes as additional demands were realised.

2009 sees the launch of the Post Graduate Diploma in Midwifery at the Fiji Nursing School. Technical support from James Cook University, Australia and Financial assistance from Aust-aid, funded Fiji Health Sector Improvement Program have been milestones.  This new feature includes a year’s program with an enhanced knowledge base. A women’s centred approach is programmed.

2009 also sees the new management team at the Ministry of Health undertaking major reform in the approach to healthcare delivery to our people in Fiji.
Issues of Leadership and Governance have resulted in better relations with all other sectors including the nursing workforce. Development of a Health Policy unit with assist in rationalised decision making with evidence based research.
The Nursing establishment has been re-established and we will see very positive outcomes in 2010.
There are measures to strengthen Primary care and Zone and Rural Nurses will find transportation and working conditions a lot more congenial.
You would have noted that there have not been any outages of medications and consumables from early this year, nursing promotions have been accelerated and as we speak major technology is being delivered to the health institutions in Fiji. Additionally greater participation of Donor Agencies, Public and Private Sector organisations will result in upgrade of equipment to all health establishments in Fiji.
Truly, exciting times. 

2010 is when the new Health Administration will consolidate specific measures in the area of Nursing and Midwifery with the aim of reducing maternal mortality dramatically.
The re-established nursing workforce will address in part, the chronic shortages of nursing numbers. This will result in greater intake at basic level.

The various middle level training courses will run to capacity in the areas of midwifery, public health and mental health. More promotions and acting positions will become available to the current cadre of nurses. There are proposals to franchise midwifery courses to the Nursing school in the North to additionally raise the skill base of Midwifes in Fiji with increased class sizes at Lautoka, Suva and Labasa eventually.

Senior members of the Nursing profession are working towards the establishment of their professional organisation- The Fiji College of Nursing that will start up continuing nurse education programs, which will form the basis of annual certification, and licensing.

Additionally there are measures to regionalise the delivery of maternal care into services based out of our three divisional hospitals under the supervision of the team of specialist Doctors and Nurses. Daily consultations, regular staff rotation including Doctors in training will result in better outcomes from the area and subdivisional healthcare providers.

An innovative approach to health education in the school curriculum is to be mounted with the support of the Ministry of Education. This will compliment the Safe Mother programs in existence. The Media will keep you notified shortly.

The Launch of the Fiji Chapter of the White Ribbon Program took place last week in Suva. We cannot over emphasis the need for advocacy in the community and to raise the general information, understanding of the common citizen on health matters.

2010-2015 remains the challenge to efficiently reduce mortality statistics and improve our service delivery. Realistically, with a content and stable workforce, better technology and infrastructure we will be better positioned to achieve our goals.
If we all work as a team I am confident that we will make headway into raising our health delivery standards and meet the challenges of MDG 4&5 by 2015.

For those of you enrolled in this pioneer Course of study I wish you the very best. We all chose health and nursing for altruistic reasons. Professional journeys will be most satisfying if we do not forget that. Life is never easy but will be less painful if we stay close to the ideals, which brought you here.

I thank you for your attention and now launch the Post Graduate Diploma in Midwifery program.

God Bless you all.
Dr Neil Sharma.
Minister of Health