GIVEN THE positive mood for consensus, as reflected in addresses and remarks at the first day’s public session of the 21st meeting of CARICOM’s Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), which was scheduled to conclude last evening, it is to be hoped that good news on better health care, generally, would be forthcoming in the official statement to be released on the decisions of the two-day event.
As noted in the welcome address, in his capacity as COHSOD chairman, Guyana’s Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, the meeting coincided with the 10th anniversary of the ‘Nassau Declaration’ that concretized the regional Commitment to the notion that “there can be no development without health, since ‘health is wealth’…”
Indeed, in the executive summary of their seminal report, the high-level ‘Caribbean Commission on Health and Development’ begun by observing that “a healthy population is an essential prerequisite for the economic growth and stability of the Caribbean. This is a reality that cannot be repeated too often…”
Taking a cue from this sentiment, and aware that the Commission’s far-reaching recommendations of almost six years ago were warmly embraced by the governments of CARICOM, Dr Ramsammy offered a reminder that “investment in health is an imperative,” and given the impressive record already chalked up by the member states in ‘health investment’, it was perhaps time to revisit the (priorities) as outlined in the Commission’s report.
In that context, both the COHSOD chairman and his ministerial colleague, Guyana’s Foreign Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, sought to underscore why it was critically important for all participating member states of CARICOM to treat health care as a “fundamental human rights issue.”
Dr Ramsammy went further by urging that “no national of the Community should be deprived health care,” as this was both “a moral and human rights obligation” to be upheld by the region’s governments.                
Consequently, with a Caribbean Pharmaceutical Policy “now on the table,” it was imperative, he said, that all governments of the Community ensure that they “do not fall into the trap of limiting our people from access to affordable, quality medicines, generic medicines that have provided an opportunity for our people to have access to quality, affordable medicines… Any policy we agree to must not limit our use of generic quality medicines…”
We await the statement to be released on the outcome of the 21st COHSOD ministerial meeting, which was preceded by a meeting of key health sector technocrats and officials, so that an objective assessment could be made of the decisions reached on furthering and sustaining health care as “moral and human rights” obligations by governments of our Caribbean Community.