New health plan to be released by year-end – CMO

The Health Ministry has completed most of the drafting of its new 2013-2020 health strategy entitled “Health Vision 2020”, and is currently carrying out consultations with each regional democratic council, since each has a health committee that is formed as a statutory part of the council.

The strategy that is set to be released later this year, also has contributions from health sector professionals, private sector, development partners and other ministries. The first stakeholder consultation was held in October at Baganara.
“So we are meeting with all those regional health committees to try and discuss the ideas in the strategy and to get their feedback on some of the actions that are necessary and address those,” Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Shamdeo Persaud said.
The CMO explained that thus far, the priority areas have been identified and these include the life cycle, child health, teen and adult health, and most importantly, men’s health. The latter has not been neglected, but it has not been largely addressed in a public health way. The intention is to get men to understand the importance of screening and follow-up visits, Dr Persaud said.
“Secondly, we are looking at diseases such as TB, HIV, malaria, chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases and cancers and with that, we are adding emphasis on risk factors such as smoking, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and lack of exercise,” the doctor pointed out.
Guyanese can expect to see much more health literacy/public awareness and emphasis on social determinants such as “income, transportation, housing and water,” being looked at in the plan.
The new plan envisions Guyanese as the healthiest people in the Caribbean and Latin America. It also puts non-communicable diseases on the front burner and requires a cross-sectoral approach, including the education and local government and regional development ministries.
Importantly, the plan brings into focus the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Phase one covers the next three years, and the name change from ‘National Health Strategy’ to ‘Health Vision 2020’ reflects the realisation that health is a broad developmental concept, which is impacted upon by drivers beyond the directive of the Health Ministry.
The implementation of the strategy will take a bottom-up approach with a three-year consolidation period, which focuses on improving access to quality of service among the marginalised and hinterland communities.
Health Vision 2020 will be a road map that will provide strategic direction in the delivery of health services. The 2020 plan is guided by the MDGs, the Nassau Declaration on Health, the Caribbean Cooperation in Health III, the Port-of-Spain Declaration/United National High-Level Meeting on NCDs and the National Development Strategy/Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The strategy targets increased life expectancy for both men and women to more than 70 years; decreases in maternal mortality to below 80 per 100,000 live births; decreased infant and child mortality to less than 14 and 16 per 10,000 live births; decrease by 25 per cent the mortality of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and lung disease; reduce by 25 per cent the impact of smoking, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet; reduce the risk and decrease incidences and prevalence of communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.