THE Ministry of Health 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 community 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, the 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.
“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 being looked at in the plan.
“We know that health is not just about being sick or well, but it is affected by income, transportation, housing and water, and our emphasis will be on expanding primary health care to achieve universal coverage,” Dr. Persaud said.
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 Ministries of Education and Local Government and Regional Development.
Importantly, the plan brings into focus the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Phase 1 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 by drivers beyond the directive of the Health Ministry.
Its 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. 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, Nassau Declaration on Health, Caribbean Cooperation in Health III, 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 over 70 years, decreases in maternal mortality to below 80 for 100,000 live births, decrease infant and child mortality to less than 14 and 16 per 10,000 live births, decrease by 25 percent the mortality of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and lung disease, reduce by 25 percent the impact of smoking, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet, reduce the risk and decrease the incidence and prevalence of communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.
The plan has two strategic pillars: universal health coverage and social determinants of health. The building blocks of the plan are influenced by factors set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and take into consideration service delivery, health workforce, information/surveillance, medical products, vaccines and technology and financing and leadership.
Some of the new strategic components include improved governance re-organising the delivery of health, application of evidence-based approaches, capacity building, strengthening health sector financing, strengthening strategic information for planning and implementation, and developing performance management and monitoring systems.
Priority areas include family health, NCDs, human resources, communicable diseases, environmental health, accident responses, frontier, migrant, remote and vulnerable population, advanced health care and health literacy.