Georgetown: It has been recognised internationally that Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) have an impact on the development of many countries as such much attention is being placed on this epidemic.
This was disclosed when Regional Health Officers and Programme Heads met for their second biennial meeting Wednesday at the Grand Coastal Inn, East Coast Demerara to focus on the development of the 2013-2020 Health Strategy entitled “Health Vision 2020”.
The new plan replaces the old one which concludes at the end of 2012 and envisions Guyanese as the healthiest people in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran at the event said the new strategic plan puts Non-Communicable Diseases on the front burner and desires a cross-sectoral approach including the Ministries of Education and Local Government and Regional Development.
He illustrated that the Education Ministry’s Canteen Policy, for instance, has some amount of input from the Health Ministry in the area of ensuring the food is prepared in a safe and healthy environment.
The Ministry of Local Government has a Health Coordinator looking over the delivery of health care in the Regions. With these partnerships in mind, Minister Ramsaran is calling for stronger synergies among the Ministries in order to get the best results in the over all delivery of health care in Guyana.
The Minister also highlighted that it has been recognised internationally that NCDs have an impact on the development of many countries as such much attention is being placed on this epidemic. He recalled that a few years ago HIV/AIDS stood in the same position NDCs now stand, however due to intense responses, the battle against HIV/AIDS has been successful; no less a result is expected with NCDs.
Permanent Secretary, Leslie Cadogan emphasised that the plan brings into focus the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. He posited that having the input from the Regional Health authorities is important since they are the ones who engage with the citizens in their respective Regions.
PAHO/WHO Representative, Adrianus Vlugman committing PAHO/WHO’s support to the development of the Health Ministry’s new strategy ‘Health Vision 2020’. He indicated that the Health Ministry recognises that it cannot make all the decisions, regarding the plan alone, hence the need for all stakeholders to contribute in one way or another since they have value for the national effort.
Dr. Vlugman pointed out that the strategy will also address ethnicity and culture, gender specific issues and gender based violence.
Some of the new strategic components included improved governance reorganising the delivery of health, application of evidence based approaches, capacity building, strengthening health sector financing, strengthening strategic information for planning and implementation, develop performance management and monitoring systems.
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