Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 31, 2014 News
– hopes to improve care delivery
Guyana is looking to increasingly adopt the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the public health sector, a move that has already been embraced by many countries around the world.
This is in light of the fact that the use of ICTs has several advantages, including the potential to be the most promising tool in health care. This notion was emphasised Wednesday, even as a batch of varying levels of health care workers graduated from a six-week ICT training course.
The programme was facilitated by Ms Sattie Miller, who has been collaborating with the Health Ministry for some time.
Speaking at a simple ceremony at Red House in Kingston, Director of Regional Health Services Dr. Monica Odwin pointed out that the use of ICTs could lend to the improving of quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of health care. She outlined that the use of ICTs can enable electronic prescribing, thereby minimising the possibility of human errors in this regard.
Other notable advantages listed by Dr. Odwin were the reduction of health care costs, the reduction of paperwork, and the facilitation of real-time communication.
“What happens if there is an outbreak in the remote regions of Guyana? Through information technology and improved communications we can know what is going on in a very short time,” Dr. Odwin said.
However, since it was mainly health workers of Region Four who were the primary beneficiaries of the ICT training programme, the Regional Health Services Director amplified the need for it to be extended to the other regions of the country as well. She noted that although sustaining such an expansion at the moment may not be entirely feasible, “it is good to have that vision where we would like to be.”
Delivering remarks to the graduates too was Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran, who noted that the training programme is a representation of the “change agent things that the Ministry has been quietly doing; the turnaround things, the little ripples in the pond…”
Such moves, he opined, could help to address many weaknesses in the health system.
According to the Minister, some of these weaknesses have led to “unpardonable lapses.” “One that I did discover, to my horror, is that you might have had a medex who was working for 15, 20 years, and never touched a computer…We are at a stage where we are still using transparencies.”
The Minister observed that around the Region, at the simplest of conferences, health workers are already using better methods of storing, manipulating and projecting data. He stressed that even officers within the Guyana Defence Force are quite capable in using ICTs effectively.
Chairperson of Wednesday’s ceremony, Nurse Veronica Rodrigues, urged the graduates amounting to 30, including nurses and doctors, to use their newfound talent. According to her, moves to speed up communication are instrumental to improve teamwork.
“We all work in the health sector and we talk a lot about teamwork and team spirit,” said Nurse Rodrigues, as she outlined that “a great team is only as great as its ability to communicate. With so many new ways to communicate today, it is not just about inter-office information sharing, but about mobility and out-of-office communication”.
Each of the graduates was presented with a certificate of completion.
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