– Health Minister
THE health Sector has made progress in the past year but the Health  Minister admits there are areas which need more emphasis.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said those are areas which are not adequately recognised as the public health problems they are.
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle, he said they include autism and other disabilities and mental health. According to him, efforts have been made to address the last two but he acknowledged there is still a long way to go.
He said a major highlight in the area of mental health is the significant increase in public awareness advanced by the Ministry.
However, Ramsammy said there are some, like autism, which were never given recognition locally and have, only in the past two years, begun to feature in the general public, through the media and stakeholder groups advocating support.
“We are still some distance away from where we need to be. We need much more focus to be placed on these areas,” he reiterated.
Ramsammy said, in the past those, among other issues, had been separated from primary health care.
“When it was a case of mental health, for example, the local worker did not deal with it. That case was referred to a specialist or to the Psychiatric Hospital. We need to mainstream these issues into the primary health care system,” he advocated.
Ramsammy said recognition, by the general public, of those issues needs to be deepened.
“We find it is at a low level,” he said.
Ramsammy maintained that public awareness, as well as robust work programmes in those areas are expected to change the paradigm and improve the quality and scope of services offered the Guyanese people.