The South Pacific Health Service was formed by an Agreement between the Government of New Zealand, the Government of Fiji and the Western Pacific High Commission on 7 September 1946. At the request of the Government of Tonga the Service was extended to include that country on 1 January 1947. The Agreement was renewed on 11 June 1951, and again renewed on 18 August 1964. It expired in December 1969 and was not renewed after Fiji gained independence.
The Agreement established a Board, the South Pacific Board of Health, to conduct the South Pacific Health Service and stated that it consisted, among others, of an Inspector-General who was the Chairman. This position was always occupied by the Director of the Medical Services of Fiji.
The chief objects of the Service were to advise territories on health matters, collate epidemiological information, monitor quarantine arrangements in the region, and to assist with local training of medical, dental and nursing staff in the Central Medical School, Suva. An inter-territorial Health Service emerged to which expatriate Medical Officers were appointed and within which they were moved around as determined by the Inspector-General. However as the Pacific territories approached independence this concept became redundant.

Bound sets of printed records transferred by the Western Pacific Archives to the Tuvalu National Archives, consisting of minutes of meetings of the South Pacific Board of Health held, June 1949-July 1970, including some joint meetings with the Medical School Advisory Board, Suva, and appendices consisting of papers covering a broad range of Pacific health matters; together with South Pacific Health Service, Inspector-General’s Reports, 1946-1967, which include reports on staffing establishment, the Central Medical and Nursing Schools in Suva, the Makogal Leprosy Hospital, nutrition and health education, epidemiology, research and surveys, international agencies, as well as a range of occasional papers.
See Finding aids for details.