–30 more health centres to implement programme
THE Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday expanded the HEARTS programme for the management of cardiovascular diseases.
The initiative is a collaborative effort between the MOH, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) which aims to reduce some of the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases.
Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony, during the launch of the programme, emphasised the significance of addressing cardiovascular diseases, as a number of patients seeking medical assistance face related issues.
Dr. Anthony noted that individuals often seek medical attention only when their condition becomes critical, thereby making more complex interventions necessary.
To mitigate such circumstances, the health minister emphasised the importance of establishing preventative measures, stressing the need for comprehensive healthcare systems at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels to effectively manage cardiovascular diseases.
Out of the existing 386 health centres, 100 of them have successfully implemented the HEARTS programme. The minister announced that the implementation of this programme will soon be expanded to an additional 30 centres.
“We’re not there yet; we have about 386 or so health posts and centres. We’re probably now at 100 health centres, where we have HEARTS. We are adding maybe 30 more, so we still have a far way to complete at least at these two levels,” he said.
Dr. Anthony emphasised the importance of setting a target within the next year or two to achieve comprehensive coverage of all health centres and posts in Guyana, particularly in areas with large populations.
“We have, in many ways, a big challenge ahead of us, and currently, if we don’t work to fix it, it’s going to get worse. And that’s why we need to place a lot of emphasis on how we can fix this as quickly as possible,” Minister Anthony said.
In addition, Dr. Anthony related that while the health sector has made significant progress in implementing a programme for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, it is necessary to now shift their focus towards addressing diabetes.
He acknowledged that certain aspects of diabetes care have shown signs of deterioration over the years, and emphasised the need to rebuild and strengthen those areas.
The health minister also highlighted the challenge posed by the variability in how doctors approach the treatment of patients. He recognised the importance of standardising care protocols, and ensuring consistent practices across healthcare professionals.
“We have no shortage of medicines; we have medication. We have invested millions and millions of dollars to make sure that ‘meds’ are available. So, each doctor would like to treat differently and therefore, their regimens of how they treat might be different from what is the standard,” he explained.
Minister Anthony continued: “In a public health system, we have to standardise how we are treating patients, because we have to procure these medications. If people who are working in the system are going to treat persons by how they feel they want them to be treated and don’t take these facts into consideration, what would happen is that you would prescribe medication that are not necessarily within the system.”
This would then lead to the patient not getting the necessary care because of the cost of the medication being prescribed.
Dr. Anthony said standardized protocols must be developed, considering that the medications being procured in the health sector is equally effective compared to those that a doctor may individually prescribe.
“Therefore, we have to make sure that we can standardize the treatment to ensure that it becomes affordable and manageable,” Dr. Anthony said.
