COUNTRIES in the Americas, including Guyana, are focusing on achieving Universal Health Coverage through a Regional Compact on Primary Healthcare for Universal Health entitled PHC 30-30-30.

The document which was launched on April 30, calls on regional member states of PAHO to make primary healthcare the lynchpin of their health systems to fast-track the movement towards universal healthcare and the achievements of the 2030 SDGs.
During the observance of Universal Health Day on December 12, Minister of Public Health, Hon. Volda Lawrence, remarked that it drew into sharp focus the aims of the PHC 30-30-30 which entails reducing the barriers that hinder access to healthcare by 30 per cent and allocating at least 30 per cent of the entire public health budget to the first level of care by 2030.

Stemming from the report, 10 recommendations were made focusing on ways in which primary healthcare could be advanced and achieved by 2020. According to the minister, four speak directly to Guyana given our demographics and social composition and aptly highlights the measures that need to be considered and implemented.

These are:
– Develop people and community-based PHC-based models of care that take into account human diversity, inter-culturalism and ethnicity

– Creation of social participation mechanisms that are genuine, inclusive and accessible with a perspective of intercultural and functional diversity to guarantee full exercise of the right to health

– Recognition that human resource has a leading role in the construction and consolidation of PHC models of care

– Development of a financing model that ensures sufficiency, quality, equity, efficiency and sustainability

Minister Lawrence said from 2018, the Finance Ministry increased its allocation to the health sector paving the way for intensified efforts towards achieving Universal Healthcare. She thanked PAHO for its continued technical support in ensuring the response to this Compact PHC 30-30-30 is accelerated and actualised. PAHO/WHO’s Country Representative, Dr. William Adu-Krow, in support of the minister noted the implementation of robust primary level healthcare is key to achieving universal health coverage. (DPI)