The Regional Health Services (RHS) Unit and the Local Government Ministry agreed that closer collaboration is needed to boost the delivery of health, at the Regional Health Officers’ (RHOs) meeting held recently.
“It was a very important meeting since the Ministry is seeking to enhance how we manage health care delivery in the various regions and at the same time to establish a harmonious working relationship, effective communication mechanisms and also restate the roles and functions of the REOs, RDC and RHOs … we are very happy that we could have had such a gathering,” Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Ganga Persaud said.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release, he also noted that cross-cutting issues that are related to programmes that the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) are required to deliver and those for which there is a central ministry were also addressed. Persaud acknowledged that sometimes health officials would be left with an overabundance of certain drugs because in an attempt to prevent the rapid spread of some seasonal ailments they would have placed large orders to treat some seasonal ailments, taking into consideration Guyana’s topography and land mass and the difficulties these would pose in accessing emergency medicines. RHOs also gave a report on expired drugs, their identification and treatment of such in record keeping and disposal.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary Collin Croal said the meeting also established that RHOs are expected to report to the REOs and not the ministry. The ministry is responsible for policy decisions concerning health but administrative matters are channelled through the REOS. Regarding the proper management of drugs, the meeting heard that in a properly managed information system, drug shortages can easily be identified. Croal also noted that in order to lessen the burden of the daily management of hospitals on RHOs, certain measures will be taken to ensure that centralised regional hospitals are managed by administrators.
