THE Ministry of Health’s Regional Health Services, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO), yesterday  morning commenced a three-day conference at the Cara Lodge, under the theme: ‘Initiating Continuing Medical Education (CME) for Medex’. The three-day conference will see presentations on: customer care and occupational health and safety; package of publicly guaranteed health services; investigating an outbreak at the regional level; health information cycle; local supervision of integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI); emergency obstetrics and neonatal care (EmONC) assessment findings and strategies for Regions 1, 7, 8, 9 and10; basic health centre management; and developing a model for Medex CME in Hinterland Regions.
PAHO/WHO Country Representative, Dr. Beverley Barnett said that the government along with the University of Guyana is to be congratulated for the development of the Medicine Extended Programme (Medex Programme), which facilitates access to basic quality health services by all residents regardless of where they may live.
“To date, the programme has produced about 600 Medex who work in the 10 administrative regions of Guyana and they play a crucial role in primary health care,” Dr. Barnett explained.
To underscore their importance in the health system, she  quoted from the Medex Act of 1978 which states, “that Medex may in particular, advise members of the public on the promotion of health generally and prevention of disease, administer pre-natal and post-natal care and advise members of the public on routine child care, diagnose and manage certain common ailments and identify such ailments as  need referral to supervising medical practitioner or in an emergency direct it to a hospital, and perform normal deliveries of babies and identify abnormalities which need to be referred to the supervising medical practitioner or to a hospital”.
She added that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a topic that is increasingly being discussed at the global, regional, sub-regional and national levels, in an effort to reduce health inequities, which are un-just, un-fair and, goods and facilities that hinder the advancement of the achievement of the millennium development goals and the vision of health for all.
Director, Health Services Education, Noel Holder said that whilst Medex are utilised in the district hospitals, their main focus is in the primary health care setting in the public health sector.
“You have got to make sure that what you do and the clients with whom you are interfacing with at the community or public health level, they receive the level of care for which you are able to give…you should be able to refer adequately to the next level where we can have the continuity of care,” Holder said.
He also charged participants of the conference to be innovative in accomplishing their objectives.
“You have got to come to the table also with something because out there in those communities, people come up with various suggestions…if you put all those onboard you can derive at some kind of innovation that is positive and reap rewards for the community.”
The conference will conclude tomorrow with a discussion which will see its participants interacting with senior medical specialists.
Chief Medex Baldeo James also addressed the participants.