Primary health care should be accessible within five kilometres

Jun 01, 2018 News

President Granger tells Expo attendees

President David Granger flanked by Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence and Permanent Secretary, Ms. Colette Adams, tour the exposition.

It is enshrined in the Guyana’s constitution that all citizens are entitled to free medical attention. Moreover, the Government of Guyana is aiming to realise a state of affairs that ensures that citizens do not travel more than five kilometres in any direction to access primary health care.
This was the declaration of President David Granger as he delivered the feature address at the opening of the inaugural Health Exposition at the Sophia Exhibition Site on Wednesday.
During his address, the President announced plans to ensure that all neighbourhoods have in place a health centre designed to ensure that even the poorest of citizens will be able to readily access health care.
But although every citizen is entitled under the constitution to free medical attention, the President asserted that this right is not absolute, since every citizen is also obliged to participate in activities to protect his or her own health, and by extension, the health of the nation.
The Head of State made it clear that Guyana’s health objectives are driven by three priorities including: the provision of universal access to public health; promotion of universal primary health care and emphasis on preventative health care.
He underscored that “Primary health care is a pillar of the national public health strategy entitled Health Vision 20/20. It is a vehicle for ensuring universal health coverage and is one of the bases for ensuring that the national health agenda is implemented.”
He posited too that primary health care, according to the declaration of Alma-Ata of 1978, 40 years ago, is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and the community with the national health system, bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work. In fact, he noted that it constitutes the first element of continuing health care process.
“That is why in Guyana, with the return of democratic local government elections in 2016, we created three new towns, and it is our ambition and intention that every region be governed by a capital town and every region’s capital town will be able to deliver health care services to the people within that Region. You should not have to leave your region for any form of medical attention,” said the President to an applauding audience.
He moreover underscored during his speech that “public health services are a public good you can enjoy without depriving other people of the right to enjoy theirs. Public Health services are aimed at promoting the common good and ensuring that everyone enjoys the good life.”
“When we speak of a good life, we speak of universal access to inclusive and quality health care. Universal access to public health coverage is a condition or a situation to which everyone could receive the public health services they need without incurring financial distress,” said President Granger.
According to the president too, the local health care policy is rooted in the United Nations Universal Declaration of human rights which assures everyone’s right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing for himself, and of his or her family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.
“That was a right proclaimed 70 years ago… Universal public health coverage is a fundamental principle of the constitution of the World Health Organisation which declared that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being,” outlined President Granger, as he reiterated that public health services are mandated in the constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Government, according to Granger, operates at three strata: at the national and central government level; at the regional administration level and at the municipal or neighbourhood level. The health care system similarly, the President said, must take the shape of the governmental system.
“So if the government is based on neighbourhoods, the health care system has to be based on neighbourhoods and nobody should have to leave their neighbourhood in Lethem or in Mahdia or in Bartica to travel to Vreed en Hoop or Georgetown,” Granger asserted.
He noted that public health services in Guyana are an important arm of the services – primary, secondary and tertiary – delivered to the citizens.
“The objective of all three levels is to provide access to health services, access which is based on quality, on reliability and on inclusivity,” said the President.
As he directed his attention to the exhibition, which is being held under the theme ‘reaching for a better life with good health’, the President regarded it as timely and “reminds us of the connection between good health and enjoying a good life.”
Guyana, he asserted, is committed to the objective of a better life with good health, an objective that is in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal [SDG] Three which speaks to healthy lives and human wellbeing.
As he declared the exposition open, the President stressed that if Guyana is to achieve the objectives that is set out in SDG number three, efforts must be continually focused on the three priorities on which the national health strategy is based.