Prevention is the first step in primary health care – President Granger highlights

Jun 02, 2018 News

President David Granger

“We need to discontinue the use of sugar water, however it is bottled; we need to discontinue the use of preserved and processed food which are packed full of sodium and other chemicals that contribute to hypertension, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.”
This was the appeal by President David Granger as he addressed the audience gathered on Wednesday at the opening of the 2018 Health Expo venued at the National Exhibition Site, Sophia, Georgetown.
The President was at the time attempting to emphasise the need for prevention in the quest to advance primary health care.
He asserted, “Prevention is the first step in primary health care. Preventive care is central to universal public health coverage.” He made it clear in his presentation that preventive health care is central to universal public health coverage, to primary health care and the delivery of public health services.
“No public health system and no national health strategy would be complete or successful without emphasising the importance of preventive care. In Guyana therefore, prevention is at the centre of our national health strategy,” said President Granger.
He was at the time addressing the opening of the 2018 Health Expo at the National Exhibition Site on Wednesday.
He pointed out, too, that prevention is the principle of the public health intervention and one of the principle means to improve citizens, mental, physical and social well-being. “But where does prevention start?” the President rhetorically asked.
“It starts with you; it starts with mommy and daddy, it starts at the home. Prevention of lifestyle diseases is part of the human socialisation process; it beings in the home, in the family, in the household [and] it is reinforced at school and at work and it is fortified at the neighbourhood national and regional levels,” said President Granger.
Prevention is particularly important, the President said, when dealing with lifestyle diseases.
Directing his focus to his audience, he asserted, “…Alcohol and drug abuse are unhealthy and a cure is expensive. The excessive consumption of processed and fast foods is unhealthy and expensive, the lack of recreational sports and inactivity have contributed to the increased incidents of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and obesity.”
Compounding the burden caused by the lifestyle diseases on the health sector, is that of injuries caused by road accidents and those caused in the workplace.
“The public health care system has to bear a huge economic cost and the fastest and most effective way of reducing that cost is by ensuring that at the level of the individual, the household, the school and the workplace, we separate ourselves from the causes of these lifestyle diseases – excessive alcohol, addition and fast foods,” said President Granger.
But the work of the health care system must go on.
The National Public Health System has at its apex the Ministry of Public Health and that Ministry in accordance with the Health Act has the responsibility to deliver and where necessary oversee the delivery of health care throughout Guyana, the President said. It is also mandated to effect plans and policies to monitor quality and to evaluate outcomes.
“The Ministry’s mandate, therefore, includes ensuring citizens’ mental, physical and social health by promoting health services when and wherever they are accessible, acceptable and affordable and of course appropriate within the means of the Ministry,” said the President.
He went on to announce that the regional public health system is one that is responsible for coordinating the work of regional health workers, assisting with specialist medical personnel and referring patients to tertiary health institutions and managing the region’s soft and hard health infrastructure.
The President, however, asserted that “it is at the neighbourhood where a system of neighbourhood health centres which are the main and primary providers of health services within communities, and these neighbourhood health centres are to be accessible to all citizens everywhere…
“They must guarantee citizens’ access to public health care especially the provision of primary health care,” said President Granger.

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