HEALTH care delivery will be further advanced, as $21.5B, the second largest allocation of the 2014 National Budget, is being directed towards the Health Sector for the achievement of its strategic goals. This was disclosed during the Budget presentation Monday by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh in the National Assembly. Recently, government launched the updated National Health Strategy, Health Vision 2020, for the period 2013 to 2020. The strategy seeks to integrate the delivery of quality, effective and responsive health services and prevention measures to improve the nation’s physical, mental and social well-being.
During his presentation, Minister Singh said that government remains unwavering in its commitment to securing access for all to appropriate, promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services, without suffering financial hardship.

Infrastructure
The Health Sector expended in excess of $17.7B in 2013, including over $1.2 B on construction and upgrade of health infrastructure countrywide, and $257.8M on medical equipment. Efforts also continued to advance the construction of Guyana’s first specialty hospital, which aims to deliver tertiary level health care not previously available to citizens.
Minister Singh revealed that for 2014, $2.4B has been budgeted for the construction and upgrade of health care facilities countrywide, including the Port Kaituma District Hospital, Linden Hospital Complex, Kwakwani Hospital, the acute care facility at the National Psychiatric Hospital, and the Georgetown School of Nursing.
Additionally, $910M has been allocated for the specialty hospital and $382.7M for the purchase of medical equipment. The sum of $117M is allocated for the purchase of 12 ambulances which represents a 40 percent increase in the national fleet.

Training
In 2013, $364M was expended in the area of training. With the return of 278 Cuban-trained doctors, the sector’s human resources were boosted, while significant progress was made in delivering post-graduate programmes in gynaecology, orthopaedics, internal medicine, paediatrics, emergency medicine, anaesthesiology and surgery, benefiting 44 government medical officers, as well as increasing the number of skilled operating room technicians, and enhancing capability in neonatal intensive care and emergency obstetrics.
This year, in efforts to continue both primary and specialised health training, over $428 M has been allocated to train 20 additional post-graduate residents and upgrade over 4000 providers.

Maternal and child health
In keeping with government’s focus on maternal and child health, government will continue to prioritise resource mobilisation for improving maternal health, and efforts will be made to accelerate the achievement of this goal in collaboration with its partners.
In this regard, the sum of $50M has been allocated to commence the extension of the maternity facility at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation to ensure increased bed capacity, while $22.6M is allocated for the establishment of maternity waiting homes in Lethem and Bartica to cater for antenatal high-risk mothers.
In the area of improving maternal health, Guyana completed an MDG Acceleration Framework which focuses on the MDG Goal to improve maternal health. The framework is intended to harmonise strategies to leverage resources for achieving sustainable improvements in the quality of maternal care offered nationally and which focuses on solutions for the reduction of maternal mortality.
Recognising the growing incidence of personal and domestic violence, the provision of services in mental health will focus on the prevention and management of suicidal behaviour. In 2011, a cost of illness assessment for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Guyana was conducted, and it was found that total annual direct and indirect costs accruing from NCDs were estimated at over $40B.
A national commission will be established to oversee the accelerated implementation of the national plans for prevention and control of NCDs and $50M has been allocated to launch a public education and outreach programme.
In keeping with the need to combat the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, over 78,000 long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets were distributed to mining communities which contributed to a reduction of over 1,000 malaria cases nationally.

(GINA)