In observance of World Heart Day 2022, the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Chronic Diseases Unit launched the HEARTS Technical Packages on September 29, at the Lethem Regional Hospital in Region Nine
A release from the Ministry of Health said that the objective of the package is to better assist health care professionals in the prevention and early detection of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension within the primary health care system.
The HEARTS Technical Package comprises six modules and an implementation guide that helps health care providers. It will also be effective in strengthening the management of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and ensuring that there is reasonable access to continuous, standardized, and high-quality care for people at high risk, the release said.
With cardiovascular disease being the leading cause of death in Guyana, before the COVID–19 pandemic, the release said that the Chronic Diseases Unit welcomed the initiative from PAHO/WHO to have primary health care be properly equipped to detect cardiovascular diseases in the early stages. As such eight pilot sites were selected to benefit from the implementation of the packages.
Focal Point of the High Blood Pressure and the HEARTS Technical Package initiative, Dr Michael Pereira emphasised the urgency of having these technical packages implemented.
“If we improve the ways we treat, monitor, and look into risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases, we can better prolong our patients’ life”, Dr Pereira said during his interactions with health care workers in Lethem.
Dr Pereira also noted that the ‘S’ from HEARTS will soon be changed to ‘D’ to have a component for Diabetes added.
He stated that the implementation of the HEARTS package at the Primary Health Care facilities, will also help to reduce the number of patients visiting the Lethem Regional Hospital and will also help to see which patient is at risk in the primary levels and to have those patients be properly treated.
“Primary health care centres play a major role because that’s where we need to control patients, see who is at risk, treat them properly, and avoid them from coming here at Lethem Regional Hospital”, he stated.
The release said that the Lethem Regional Hospital was the last of eight pilot sites for the official launch of the HEARTS Technical Package. However, since April, the Chronic Diseases Unit has been developing the package within health centres around Guyana. To date, approximately thirty health facilities have since benefited from the initiative.
Medical Superintendent at the Lethem Regional Hospital, Dr Delleana Anderson; Dr Dianelle Drepaul, Coordinator of Chronic Diseases Unit; Cecil Abrams, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Technical Officer for Tobacco and Alcohol Control, Dr Shelieza Gopie were also present and participated in the launch of the initiative.
