Fiji has three divisional hospitals providing specialised care — CWM in Suva, Lautoka and Labasa — with seventeen sub-divisional hospitals covering everywhere else at a generalist level. For a serious injury or illness, the realistic pathway is boat or helicopter to Nadi or Suva, then an air ambulance to Australia or New Zealand. Plan around that, not around the resort doctor.
Guideline only. This is a planning reference compiled from published sources, not medical advice and not a substitute for a current risk assessment. Confirm arrangements with the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services and with your insurer or assistance provider before your group travels. Last reviewed 21 September 2026.
How is Fiji's health system actually structured?
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services publishes a structure of four divisions and 21 sub-divisions, comprising three divisional hospitals, 18 sub-divisional hospitals, more than 80 health centres and 99 nursing stations. The tiering is what matters to a planner: divisional hospitals provide specialised clinical care, while sub-divisional hospitals provide 24-hour generalised clinical services. A peer-reviewed study of Fiji's surgical capacity describes sub-divisional hospitals as limited to primary care procedures.
That single sentence should shape your duty-of-care plan more than anything else on this page. A resort on the Coral Coast is not near a hospital that can do complex surgery; it is near Sigatoka, which is sub-divisional.
Where are the hospitals, by region?
| Facility | Where | Tier | Published capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital | Suva | Divisional / tertiary referral | 458 beds, 5 functional operating rooms |
| Lautoka Hospital | Lautoka | Divisional (Western) | 339 beds, 3 functional operating rooms |
| Labasa Hospital | Labasa, Vanua Levu | Divisional (Northern) | 170 beds, 3 functional operating rooms |
| Nadi Hospital | Nadi | Sub-divisional | Published by the hospital as 80 beds; the capacity study records 86 beds, 1 operating room |
| Sigatoka Hospital | Coral Coast | Sub-divisional | 56 beds, 1 operating room |
| Savusavu Hospital | Vanua Levu | Sub-divisional | 56 beds, 1 operating room |
| Taveuni (Twomey) Hospital | Taveuni | Sub-divisional | 33 beds, 1 operating room |
Bed and theatre figures other than Nadi's come from a peer-reviewed study using Ministry data rather than from the Ministry's own website, which publishes none. The Ministry describes CWM as Fiji's largest and oldest public hospital and the country's primary tertiary referral centre, established in 1923, with emergency and trauma, general and specialist surgery, obstetrics with a neonatal ICU, paediatrics, mental health, radiology, laboratory and pharmacy.
Nadi Hospital publishes something useful for anyone running an event near the airport: a 24/7 accident and emergency department, 24/7 maternity, outpatients from 8am to 10pm, and dental and eye services 8am to 4pm.
What private options exist?
Pacific Specialist Healthcare (PSH) publishes itself as Fiji's largest private specialty hospital at 130 beds, with sites in Suva at Foster Court, Walu Bay, and in Nadi, covering neurosurgery, cardiology, urology, obstetrics and gynaecology, dermatology, internal medicine and general surgery. Published hours are 7am to 6.30pm daily.
Oceania Hospitals in Toorak, Suva describes itself as a premier private hospital operating since 2001, covering cardiology, gynaecology, paediatrics, imaging and surgery. One caution: at the time of checking, its website was serving injected spam content, so verify its details by phone rather than from the site.
The most directly relevant private provider for a resort-based group is Zens Medical Centre, which publishes 24-hour clinics in Nadi and on Denarau, plus Lautoka, Ba, Rakiraki, Labasa and Savusavu, offering GP care, emergency medical response, laboratory, radiology, physiotherapy and ambulance services — and states that house calls and resort visits are available. For a Denarau-based conference, that is the nearest thing Fiji has to an on-call event doctor.
A published list of approved doctors and medical centres from a Fiji insurer names further options by town, including Ace Medical, Shortlane Medical and Nandan Family Medical in Nadi, Sigatoka Medical Centre and Metro Medical Centre on the Coral Coast, and Nasese Medical and Family Medical Centre in Suva.
What about diving injuries?
This is where the published record is genuinely contradictory, and you should not take either version on trust.
Australia's Smartraveller states that Fiji has two hyperbaric chambers, at CWM Hospital in Suva and at Pacific Specialist Healthcare in Nadi. Fiji news sources support that: the CWM chamber was commissioned in September 2022 at a reported cost of $600,000, and a chamber at PSH Nadi was launched in December 2024 as a joint venture with the Republic of Fiji Navy.
The US State Department, however, states that Fiji's hyperbaric chamber is currently not in service and that the nearest chambers are in New Zealand and Australia, advising divers to hold insurance covering decompression treatment plus evacuation to a third country.
These cannot both be current. Before any dive component in an incentive programme, call CWM or PSH directly and get the chamber's status in writing. The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association's published dive emergency notes set out the protocol: call the CWM Suva switchboard first, which alerts the on-duty hyperbaric doctor, and note that air evacuation must be arranged by the hyperbaric unit, with flights at 500 feet weather permitting in unpressurised aircraft.
What are the emergency numbers?
Tourism Fiji publishes 911 as the general emergency number, 917 for police emergencies and 910 for fire, along with Crime Stoppers on 919, Suva Police on 331 1222 and Nadi Police on 670 0222. The National Fire Authority confirms 910 as its helpline. Tourism Fiji's page does not publish an ambulance number; the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association publishes 910 or 911 for ambulance and gives St John Ambulance as (679) 3302584 or 3301439.
Put all of them on the on-site contact card rather than picking one.
How does an evacuation from an outer island actually work?
In stages, and no operator publishes how long each takes.
LifeFlight Fiji, the Fiji Aeromedical and Rescue Services Trust, publishes twin-engine aircraft reaching 95 per cent of the Fiji group, along with ground rapid-response capability. Heli Tours Fiji publishes an AS355 twin-engine helicopter fitted with an articulated medical stretcher for fast overwater patient transfers and landings at hospitals across Fiji, on 24-hour standby from Nadi Airport, with international jet retrieval available. AeroMed Pacific publishes an aviation base in Nadi offering helicopter evacuations from remote islands with transfer to its Bombardier Challenger 604 medical jet, which reaches the east coast of Australia, Southeast Asia, the near Pacific and most New Zealand domestic airports.
So the chain is: resort to Nadi or Suva by boat or helicopter, stabilise, then fixed-wing out of the country. For a group staying in the Mamanucas or Yasawas, the first leg is the one to plan — confirm with your boat operator, whether that is SeaFiji, Mamanuca Express or Manu Charters, what happens to a medical case outside scheduled sailing hours.
No medevac operator publishes response times or costs. Smartraveller says only that evacuation can be very expensive. That absence is why insurance is not optional.
What do the official advisories actually say about the standard of care?
Plainly, and worth quoting to a nervous client. Smartraveller: medical care standards are not as high as in Australia and are limited; many hospitals provide only basic care; if you become seriously ill you may need to be evacuated to Australia. The UK Foreign Office: healthcare facilities are limited in range and availability, and in serious emergencies people are often evacuated to another country. The US State Department: hospitals usually require advance payment or proof of adequate insurance before admitting a patient, and psychological and psychiatric services are limited even in the larger cities.
On blood supply, none of the Australian, New Zealand, UK or US advisories publishes a statement about Fiji's blood supply or screening. That is a gap in the public record rather than a finding either way.
What this means for your duty-of-care plan
Four practical conclusions. One: locate your nearest facility by tier, not by distance — a 20-minute drive to a sub-divisional hospital is not the same as being near care. Two: for a Denarau or Nadi programme, put Zens Medical's 24-hour Nadi and Denarau numbers on the contact card and confirm resort-visit availability in advance. Three: make comprehensive insurance including air medical evacuation a condition of participation, collect policy numbers before departure, and give your on-site lead a payment mechanism, because hospitals ask up front. Four: if the programme includes diving, resolve the hyperbaric chamber question by phone before anyone gets in the water.
Our duty of care for delegates in Fiji guide sets out the wider framework, and practical Fiji: money, health, connectivity and safety covers the delegate-facing version.
Next step
Check where your group is actually staying against the map above — the Suva city hub, the Nadi city hub and the Pacific Harbour hub list the properties and operators in each catchment, including Grand Pacific Hotel Suva, The Pearl Resort and Sheraton Fiji Golf & Beach Resort. If diving is on the programme, start with the operators' own emergency protocols — Beqa Adventure Divers and Subsurface Fiji are in the directory — and read Fiji's event infrastructure for the wider readiness picture.
