Dr. Anish Patel

Dr. Anish Patel is a consultant paediatrician and neonatologist at Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWM) in Suva, the principal paediatric referral centre for Fiji and a key hub for Pacific island child health referrals. With 12 years of paediatric experience, Dr. Patel manages a wide range of childhood conditions with particular expertise in newborn care, childhood infections, and malnutrition.

Dr. Patel trained in Fiji and the United Kingdom, and his clinical practice reflects the dual challenges of managing both acute infectious diseases prevalent in the Pacific — including typhoid, dengue, and leptospirosis — and the emerging burden of chronic childhood conditions linked to changing dietary patterns. He leads the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at CWM Hospital and is the paediatric lead for Fiji's national immunisation programme.

Dr. Patel is trilingual in English, Hindi, and Fijian, which facilitates communication with Fiji's diverse ethnic communities including Indo-Fijian and iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) families. He is deeply committed to accessible, culturally appropriate child health care across Fiji.

Dr. Patel completed his MBBS at the Fiji School of Medicine. He subsequently trained in paediatrics in the United Kingdom, obtaining the Diploma in Child Health (DCH) from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH UK) — a globally recognised specialist qualification.

He completed a Certificate in Neonatology through the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) and undertook a six-month clinical attachment at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, gaining advanced experience in neonatal intensive care and paediatric infectious diseases. He has completed WHO and UNICEF IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) training and the Newborn Resuscitation Programme (NRP).

Dr. Patel's clinical practice covers the full scope of paediatric medicine, with particular focus on neonatal care and childhood infectious diseases. In the NICU at CWM Hospital, he manages premature newborns, neonatal sepsis, hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, and respiratory distress syndrome.

For older children, Dr. Patel manages the common infectious diseases of the Pacific: typhoid fever, dengue haemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, and respiratory tract infections. He addresses childhood malnutrition and growth faltering, which remain significant health challenges in parts of Fiji and among referred patients from smaller Pacific islands. He also manages childhood anaemia, vaccine-preventable diseases, and developmental assessment.

Dr. Patel is dedicated to serving Pacific island communities and improving child health outcomes throughout the region. He has contributed to published studies in the Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences on neonatal mortality, childhood pneumonia management, and immunisation coverage in Fiji, and has presented at the Pacific Paediatric Society symposium.

He collaborates with UNICEF Pacific and the WHO Pacific Regional Office on child health surveillance and immunisation strengthening programmes. His work on improving neonatal care capacity in Fiji has been recognised in UNICEF's Pacific State of Children report.

CWM Hospital's paediatric department receives children referred from across the Pacific, including from Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Nauru, where paediatric specialist services are limited. Dr. Patel and his team are experienced in managing complex paediatric cases referred from resource-limited island health services.

Families travelling to Fiji with a sick child can access Dr. Patel's outpatient clinic at CWM Hospital or, for urgent cases, through the hospital's paediatric emergency service. Video consultation is available for non-emergency case discussions with health workers in referring Pacific island nations to plan safe patient transfer and treatment.

Dr. Patel has received the Fiji Medical Association Excellence in Child Health Award and recognition from the Fiji Ministry of Health for his leadership of the national immunisation programme. He was awarded a UNICEF Pacific Child Health Fellowship and commended by the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office for contributions to Pacific island neonatal care capacity building.