Mental health and national health consultations will be provided at the new refurbished and upgraded Tupapa Health Centre outpatient facility, which was officially opened on Friday.

The refurbished buildings, completed by Landholdings Ltd at a cost of $641,179.60, include consultation rooms.

Cook Islands Investment Corporation (CIIC) Minister Albert Nicholas thanked the Government of Japan for the funding support and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which collectively funded the construction of the two new consultation rooms.

Nicholas also thanked Vakatini Ariki and family for the land given to the government to allow the construction of the health facilities for the delivery of healthcare services to the people.

He said that as part of Te Marae Ora (TMO) Ministry of Health’s delivery of primary healthcare services, they will soon be integrating mental health and nutritional diet consultations with patients while they are waiting to be seen by a doctor.

“This is a service that will no doubt be beneficial to many of us,” Nicholas said.

“Finally, as Minister of CIIC, I’m confident that these extra rooms will further support the delivery of quality healthcare services to our people, our friends, and visitors here.”

Minister Albert Nicholas. 23110441

ADB senior economics officer and project leader Lily Homasi explained that the Pacific, including the Cook Islands, as part of the global community, is exposed to new ideas and new transboundary infectious diseases.

Reflecting back on 2020 and 2021, Homasi said the Covid-19 pandemic in a way helped people to rethink and reprioritise.

Talking about the refurbishment project, she said that the Cook Islands was successful in accessing a $2 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction in 2021.The fund is now formally known as the Japan Fund for Prosperous Resilience, Asia and the Pacific, and it is administered by the ADB. The purpose of the fund is to support the safe recovery of travel and tourism in the Cook Islands, targeting airport and health readiness activities to provide more responsive services for tourists as well as Cook Islanders.

Homasi said the project was meant to directly complement the efforts of the government of the Cook Islands, the business community, and the general public to revive tourism and rebuild the economy.

She said the health facility upgrade is one of two activities under the Health Readiness Plan, and the buildings are fully fitted with state-of-the-art equipment to facilitate medical personnel in delivering world-class health consultations and treatment services for tourists and Cook Islanders in Rarotonga.

“We hope that these facilities will be an improvement to infectious disease screening and management, and will increase the provision of services for mental health and gender-based violence counselling, which complements the government’s and other development partners’ support to strengthen health services in the Cook Islands.”

Homasi congratulated the Cook Islands government on the health facilities upgrade.

“A huge congratulations to the government and everyone involved, with special acknowledgement to the MFEM (Ministry of Finance and Economy Management) team, the TMO (Te Marae Ora) led by Secretary (Bob) Williams, the contractor Landholdings, and a team here from the ADB,” she said.

“We want to also thank the staff of TMO, especially the community around Tupapa, for their patience and cooperation in allowing the project to progress smoothly.”