$$ Billions needed to meet public health sector needs- Dr Ramsammy

Nov 13, 2010 News

About 1,000 diabetics have been placed on statins (drug used to lower cholesterol level) as part of the local Health Ministry’s effort to reduce the risks of them developing heart diseases.
But according to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, the real demand for persons in need of this kind of cholesterol-lowering drug is in the vicinity of 12,000. “You will quickly see that it is only about eight or nine percent of our people that are benefiting from statins…”
And in satisfying the needs of the eight or nine percent of the diabetic population, the Minister revealed that the health sector is forced to expend in excess of $75M.
He disclosed that in an effort to further reduce the prevalence of heart diseases, plans are apace to provide statins to all of the known diabetic cases that could potentially benefit.
The cost, understandably will amount to about $1B for the supply of just one medicine, as a result.
According to Dr Ramsammy, “If we take diabetes and hypertension together, there are about 15 medicines that we need to procure.”
For this year alone the Health Ministry had estimated that some $3B would be required to procure medicines for both chronic and infectious diseases including the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), malaria, tuberculosis, cancer, hypertension, and heart diseases along with supplies such as gloves, bandages, and chemistry reagents for laboratory tests.
He noted that there is the potential that if all of the reduction of risks is included the amount to be expended could easily reach to about $10B.
“If we allow that to happen then the total health budget will have to go to medicine and medical supplies. That is the risk we face as a nation. If we permit diabetes to keep growing, if we permit the other non-communicable diseases to keep growing then we will be forced to use most of the health budget for commodities.”
Given the challenges, the Minister noted that there is absolutely no way that Guyana or even the riches countries, as is happening in the United States, can keep putting more and more resources to meet the increasing demands for health.
According to him there is need for the health sector to grasp the existing problems and begin to reduce the existing risks.
“Each one of us as citizens in our homes, in our work places, in our recreation places can do something to reduce the risks. There is absolutely no way that as a nation we can keep ignoring the risks and therefore allow the demand to increase.
“It is consuming our resources and forcing us to divert our resources to just stay alive…”
“We have to change that paradigm. But can we change that paradigm? Can we really reduce diabetes? People use to say that it is in our genes; God meant it that way we can’t change that.”
However, the Minister ruled such assertions as untruths, adding that the chronic non-communicable diseases are all life-style diseases. As such, he noted that the increasing impact of such diseases globally correlates with the change of lifestyle.
According to the Minister, people do not exercise as much, adding that the world has become less active than it used to be. And this state of affairs, he said, has created a case of obesity, which the health sector is now forced to battle.

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$$ Billions needed to meet public health sector needs- Dr Ramsammy

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