Investment in health yielding results – Health Ministry

Dec 06, 2011 News

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The ageing of the world’s population, particularly developing countries, is a clear indicator of improving health.  This notion has been asserted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has outlined that the world’s elderly population — people 60 years and older– is currently about 650 million. It has been estimated too that by 2050 the ageing population is likely to reach about two billion.
In Guyana, for instance the quality of life has noticeably improved leading to an increase in the life expectancy rate by almost 10 years in the last decade, according to former Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
This development, he said, came at a time when “the country was again flirting with a life expectancy rate which was dropping below 60 years as we emerged into the 1990s.” He confidently asserted that today Guyana has a life expectancy rate of close to 71 years.
The Minister outlined that the life expectancy rate had risen from 40 in the 1960s to 61 by 1970 and that remained the same by 1990. However, sustained improvement in the health sector has now allowed for further improvement.
“The life expectancy of a country is usually an indication of a country’s economic and social progress. Even though we were among the Caribbean countries with the highest life expectancy in 1964, we were at the bottom of the life expectancy ranking by 1990, lagging between 10 and 14 years behind other Caribbean countries, outside of Haiti,” Dr Ramsammy asserted.
But today, Guyana is proudly catching up with the rest of the Caribbean and “we have a life expectancy similar to many of the CARICOM countries with a gap of only between two and five years compared to the highest ranking countries,” he said.
However, increased life expectancy rate does not come without some health challenges for the 21st century, according to WHO, which has cited preparing health care providers and societies to meet the needs of the older populations as a very essential factor.
Among the other factors that must be addressed, the WHO noted, is the training of health professionals on old-age care, preventing and managing age-associated chronic diseases, designing sustainable policies on long-term and palliative care and developing age-friendly services and setting.
In general, training for health professionals includes little, if any, instruction about specific care for older people. As a result the WHO maintains that all health providers should be trained on ageing issues, regardless of their profession.
And Guyana, to some extent, has been able to master some of these factors. According to Dr. Ramsammy the life expectancy rate is no mere coincidence because health workers are improving in their competency level and more health workers have been placed around the country allowing for equitable health service.
“We have made gains when it comes to our health, there is no doubt about that. We have almost beaten infectious diseases because we have better health systems and we have more medicines so our people are living longer.”
However, the evident gains that have been made could be threatened unless immediate measures are taken to ensure that people are able to live disable-free lives. “It is not just how long we live but it is how long we live productive, disable-free lives,” he asserted.
Dr. Ramsammy alluded to the fact that chronic diseases in every country of the world are adding disability-laden lives to people. He highlighted that not only are people losing their sight but they are also losing their limbs.
“If we take action now we can avert those disabilities and early death. The truth of the matter is that too many people die prematurely…” he opined.
However, it has been highlighted by the WHO that regardless of the genuine efforts health expenditures are expected to increase with age emphasizing that as people live longer, it is important to ensure these added years are healthy so that health-care costs can be kept manageable.
With ageing being a global phenomenon it is expected that by 2050 about 80 per cent of older people will be living in less developed countries.
Population ageing, according to the WHO, is occurring in parallel with rapid urbanization characterized by more than half of the world’s population living in cities in 2007. By 2030 WHO expects that that figure will rise to more than 60 per cent.
As such it has been underscored that investing in health throughout life produces dividends for societies with healthy older people becoming a resource for their families, communities and economies.
“It is rarely too late to change risky behaviours to promote health: for example, the risk of premature death decreases by 50 per cent if someone gives up smoking between 60 and 75 years of age,” the WHO has outlined.

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