The Vanuatu Vila Central hospital says it hopes a new outpatient system to be introduced in coming months will help reduce the number of patients coming to the hospital for minor consultations.
The system is expected to be introduced any time between October this year and January next year.
The hospital's superintendant, Dr Willie Tokon, says patients will be treated according to the seriousness of their disease in future, rather than on the current first-come-first-served basis.
"The basic reason is, we want to do this so that people can start using the health facilities that are near them for minor cases, and they can get referred here for specialist attention when the need arises."
Dr Tokon says municipal hospitals and health centres offer the same services for non-severe illnesses as does the main hospital.
