Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, 07 September 2020 (PAHO/WHO) - Trinidad and Tobago has shown commitment to tackling the NCD epidemic through the development of the National Strategic Plan for the prevention of and control of NCDs in Trinidad and Tobago 2017-2021. As such, PAHO has recognized these efforts and invited Trinidad and Tobago to join the implementation HEARTS in the Americas initiative, as part of the Global HEARTS initiative
Since accepting this invitation, PAHO/WHO has supported the Ministry of Health to lead this initiative which has yielded a number of key milestones. The following are some key activities conducted to date:
- Establishment of a HEARTS coordinating committee as a sub-committee of the NCD Technical Oversight committee
- Hosted of a workshop with representatives from the RHAs to develop the national HEARTS implementation plan
- Identified the implementation sites, one from each RHA
- Facilitated the pre-implementation technical mission which included PAHO representative and Global HEARTS consultants.
- Conducted capacity building sessions including Master Trainers Course for the different HEARTS technical module
- Facilitated the development of a proposed pharmacological treatment protocol for hypertension
- Conducted a stakeholders’ consultation workshop to discuss the proposed treatment protocol and gained consensus
- Established HEARTS team at the RHAs that started sensitization and pre-implementation assessment and establishment of baseline for each site
- Participated in the HEARTS in the Americas Regional Workshop that facilitated sharing of best practices and challenges and lessons learnt from other implementing countries
A two day workshop was held on the 30th and 31st of July 2019, to promote the HEARTS Initiative as a national approach to tacking cardiovascular disease by controlling hypertension through the strengthening of the health system at the primary care level. The workshop brought together a wide cross section of the population to have a more comprehensive understanding of HEARTS and how this initiative will be implemented and its role in preventing and controlling CVDs. The workshop also served as an opportunity to offically launch TT-HEARTS.
The objective of this national workshop was two-fold:
- To build momentum and strengthen primary health care systems for management and control of CVD and hypertension
- Share the best practices and challenges derived from the implementation of HEARTS in the Region;
- Establish mechanisms for scale of the initiative throughout the country
- Launch of the HEARTS Initiative in 5 sites in Trinidad and Tobago.
