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Health Minister urges population to take responsibility for own health

Apr 22, 2014 News

Even as the Ministry of Health is celebrating the gains made through its delivery of health care, efforts are simultaneously being directed towards encouraging members of the population to take responsibility for their own health.
This disclosure was recently made by Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, during a recent conversation with this publication.
But although there is more to be done to improve the delivery of health care, the Minister disclosed that among the notable successes realised, has been a reduction in the maternal mortality rate.
He recounted that while there were 25 maternal deaths in 2012, by the following year the mortality rate recorded was 18 of which only 11 were directly linked to pregnancy interventions within the health sector. Among the indirect causes were that of geography as well as HIV and malaria related complications.
The Ministry, according to Dr. Ramsaran, has also been making great strides with regards to the under-five mortality rate.  However, the Minister cautioned that the media for instance must seek to take care in its reporting of such cases.
“The media has to be innovative and follow what we are saying because when we punch figures, especially small figures, you can get a skewing of the outcomes…” explained the Minister.
According to him, for example, there were five whose babies died in accidents, and another three lost their lives in fires. These were reflected in the health statistics. The Minister said, though, that it is therefore important to recognise that these were definitely beyond the health sector.
“…This is what we call the social determinants of health…Why should a toddler barely as high as the a minibus wheel be allowed to stray out onto the roadway, then the driver gets into problems, the health sector gets bad statistics; so how do we get Guyanese to take personal responsibility for their health and in the cases of guardians responsibility for those within their charge,” questioned Minister Ramsaran.
Nevertheless, he said that the Ministry will continue to keep focused on the gains such as the reduction of the maternal and child mortality rates. The reduction of the mortality rate for instance, the Minister said, is directly linked to his moves, a few years back, to introduce strategic measures such as the Advanced Labour and Risk Management (ALARM) programme.
And according to the Minister, “We have trained practically all of the graduate doctors who came back from Cuba. There were over 278 for last year and even more previously, so we have trained all of them in batches over weekends in ALARM.”
This strategic move, the Minister said, was done in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation.
Moreover, he insisted, “ALARM is not a third world Guyanese invention, it is sanctified and sanctioned by PAHO/WHO,” and is being used to improve women health even as efforts are being made to improve child health as well.
As part of its improvement efforts too, Dr. Ramsaran said that currently the Ministry is offering post-graduate programmes in Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Surgery, Paediatrics even as fervent moves are made to maintain over 400 health care facilities across the country to help maintain the health of the population.

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