| Minister of Health Dr Leslie RamsammyWithout a single national strategy any health system in the world would be poised for failure, a situation the local Ministry of Health has been guarding against for a number of years.In fact, according to Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, the Public Health Sector is currently working on its third National Health Strategy even as he revealed that “it might be a surprise that the United States is now only realising that it needs a national strategy”.The need for a strategy,cheap jerseys, the Minister disclosed, is to ensure that all health programmes, whether Ministry-based or partner-based, are working towards common goals and therefore are not duplicating each other.He emphasised the fight against the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), which has over the years attracted much involvement from a number of individuals and organisations that have partnered with the Ministry.“As we struggle to travel the distance, we are not alone. We do so in partnership. What is clear is that we achieve nothing much if we focus on the energy and amount of money we spend; rather it is how we do what we do that matters.”It is for this reason, the Minister pointed out, that it is now known in Guyana that in order to be successful there must be a single national strategy that is used to guide the efforts of all the partnering individuals and organisations.And, according to the Minister, the local sector has become quite adept in implementing national strategies. He noted that “one of the lessons that we have learnt is that we get nowhere fast by working separately,Cheap NFL Jerseys, and with our own separate objectives we will have duplications, where we spend our time doing the same things and lots of other things are untouched”.He pointed out that, by working with a national strategy, the Ministry and its partners have been able to effectively take advantage of the available resources.“We can take pride in the fact that, because we together were willing to implement one national strategy, we have caused Guyana to stand out as an example of how in a resourceful setting we can take on HIV (or any other disease) and actually win the battle…”Currently there are just about 12,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS,Wholesale Jerseys China, about 40,Cheap NFL Jerseys China,000 living with diabetes, and more than 40,China Jerseys Cheap,000 living with hypertension, the Minister divulged.He established though that there is no sense in protecting people against medical ailments, such as HIV, if they will eventually lose their leg or even their life to diabetes. Moreover he pointed out that the need for health-system strengthening is crucial even as partners are sustained.“When 85 percent of all health care is delivered by the public-health sector, where do we place the emphasis? Sometimes we end up building parallel systems which will eat up our money and that will never work. There are many programmes that have failed because they were not built in the public sector system,” said the Minister.He additionally pointed out that had programmes, such as the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) offered by the public-health sector and Non-Governmental Organisations, not been included in the public-health system they would not have been able to survive. As such he noted that,NHL Jerseys From China, because of the function of the public-health system, 100 per cent of the women of Guyana have access to HIV programmes.“We can say that because it was built as part of the antenatal service and not as a separate programme. Our antenatal service provides programmes for pregnancy, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. What gives us the right to tell them (patients) that HIV is different?”According to the Minister, the health sector as a result is now able to know the prevalence of diseases, such as HIV, in the various factions of society.Minister Ramsammy recounted that when he became Minister of Health, 33 per cent of people with tuberculosis (TB) also had HIV. He pointed out that the co-infection rate among the TB population in the year 2000 was between 33 and 38 per cent at the beginning of last year.That percentage, according to the Minister, slipped to a notable 22 per cent at the end of last year, indicating that for all new TB patients, the co-infection prevalence was a mere 17 per cent, showing that the public-health system is performing as expected. |
