Latest update April 27th, 2024 12:04 AM
Oct 19, 2012 News
With support from the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO), the Ministry of Health has been furnished with additional expertise in the area of Primary Health Care and international leadership in health.
The boost to the public health sector was made possible through e-learning courses – Renewal of Primary Health Care and Leaders in International Health – that were channelled through the Virtual Campus for Public Health Online Courses.
A simple ceremony was held at the PAHO/WHO Brickdam, Georgetown office on Wednesday, where the participants were presented with their certificates.
The event saw the attendance of Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, who revealed that the move comes as part of the continuation of the learning process and by extension represents the continuation of the development of the human resource base of the public health sector.
According to the Minister, such programmes are an indication that the Ministry, with the assistance of organisations like PAHO/WHO, is passionate about the continual development of a well qualified cadre of health professionals.
“It is important to widen their (health professional) horizons and at the same time use their access to training as one of the reward systems. So people who do well must be allowed to move on and develop in the system that the Ministry of Health has to provide leverage for these resources…This is going to become current; it is going to become an everyday experience where we continue to train and upgrade our professionals…” the Minister said.
He revealed that several of the participants were given significant time-off, in some cases 50 per cent off from regular duties, to allow them to focus on their courses.
“It was a joint effort; PAHO did the funding but it was nothing short of a joint effort,” the Minister asserted.
Alluding to the importance of the primary health care course, PAHO’s Health Systems and Services Advisor, Dr Javier Uribe, underscored that the best countries of the world seek to use primary health care. Primary health care, he emphasised, is very critical for effective health systems and services, a notion that was fully supported by PAHO/WHO Country Representative, Dr Beverley Barnett.
According to her, “primary health care is much more than a few nurses giving vaccination and this course proves that…because it encompasses not only the basic health services, but the basic health services provided with equity, care for issues like gender, human rights and with a framework of a referral system that works very well”.
She pointed out that while the primary health care service caters to prevention and treatment, there are going to be patients who will need more complex forms of care. It is for this reason, she added, that the whole primary health care system is not just as a health centre or hospital but rather it is the whole referral system.
“We need to get the patients referred where necessary and we need to get them back to their community settings after they’ve accessed more complex areas of care,” said Dr Barnett as she expressed appreciation for the now qualified experts through the virtual mode.
A total of seven individuals successfully completed the Primary Health Care programme – Dr Rosalinda Hernandez-Munoz, Dr Narine Singh, Mr Owen John, Ms Tabitha Mallampati, Ms Melissa Ramdeen, Ms Sohodra Rampersaud and Ms Lois Stephanas. They were all urged by Dr Uribe to see the completion of the programme as a stepping stone to pursuing the Leaders in International Health programme which was successfully completed by Dr Emanuel Cummings and Dr Vishwa Mahadeo.
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