GEORGETOWN, 24 OCTOBER 2024- The Ministry of Health, with the support of PAHO/WHO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), conducted a workshop on Integrated Health Service Delivery Networks. The event gathered forty-eight senior-level participants, including the Director General, Chief Medical Officer, Permanent Secretary, eight Directors, five Regional Health Officers, the head of the unit of health investment, and other key participants from the health sector.
The workshop opened with a “Vision Statement” from Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Health, in which he presented his plans for the future of the health system in Guyana towards 2030. Minister Anthony provided a synopsis of the ministry's progressive work implemented since 2020. The Minister thanked the PAHO/WHO role at critical points on this journey. Minister Anthony also presented his long-term plans for the development of the health system in Guyana, including the expansion of health services that focus on the prevention, promotion, and care of maternal and child health conditions and chronic diseases and the elimination of 22 infectious diseases in Guyana by 2030. The minister reiterated Guyana’s commitment to health equity and access for all.
To achieve these goals the minister highlighted that Guyana aims at expanding health facilities at hospital level and the first level of care, adopting innovative training of human resources mechanisms to increase the number of new staff and the quality of their training, strengthening surveillance, routine monitoring and training at central and filed levels, the adoption of a digital health plan, and the production of medicines, and introduction of innovations and new technologies in the country.
With regards to the organization of health services, the minister highlighted the need to start exploring how the organization of health networks can shape a new health service delivery model, ensuring equal access, quality and efficiency in the provision of health services. This is relevant in the current context, as Guyana is building 15 brand new hospitals at 3 levels of care that will replace very old wooden hospitals in the country. The Minister also highlighted the need for Guyana to prepare a new national health strategy towards 2030.
In his remarks, Mr Daniel Albrecht, PAHO/WHO Representative a.i., thanked Minister Anthony and participants to take a pause to plan together on options for the organization of the health system to achieve universal health by 2030 as committed in the Government of Guyana manifesto of 2020. Mr Albrecht highlighted the bold decisions taken by Guyana in recent years to strengthen the health system. These include the substantial increase in salaries in the health sector in 2023, the threefold increase in the health sector budget in four years, and the expansion of health services across the country.
Ms Lorena Solorzano, IDB Representative in Guyana, stated that the workshop is an important step in improving the health system in Guyana to address long-term challenges in access and health outcomes. She reiterated that IDB will continue to provide support to the Government of Guyana, working with partners to implement health networks to improve primary health care in the future.
The collaborative team of PAHO and IDB experts was instrumental in preparing an initial “implementation roadmap” that includes strategic activities for Integrated Health Service Delivery Networks, which the Ministry of Health will implement in two years. Participants organized these activities across five “domains”, including reforms in health system governance, health services organization, human resources, digital health, and health finance. Subsequently, PAHO/WHO and IDB teams met with Minister Anthony to discuss the “Implementation Roadmap” prepared after the workshop. The Minister of Health requested support to prepare a new national health sector policy towards 2030 and agreed to start preparing an analysis of potential health services delivery networks in the country.
The PWR a.i. reiterated PAHO/WHO's unwavering commitment to health system transformation, which is at the core of the “Vision Statement”.
