Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony on Monday urged Regional Health Officers (RHOs) to be more proactive and to raise awareness of diseases.
Addressing a three-day conference of RHOs at the Grand Coastal Hotel, Anthony said they should be more proactive when it comes to managing infrastructure projects within the various regions and when procuring equipment, a release from the Ministry of Health said.
He said that a maintenance plan should be implemented to ensure that the equipment is being serviced promptly.
Anthony urged the development of a Laboratory Strategy to be utilised at both a regional and national level when offering healthcare services.
“….we can develop a National Laboratory Strategy which will indicate what we should offer nationally and what we should offer in each region, and how we’ll offer them. Based on this, we’ll know what equipment needs to be purchased and what are the gaps in the regions, and if we have overcapacity in the region we’ll know how to deal with them”, he explained.
Anthony went on to emphasise the need to raise awareness against diseases to impact behaviour change.
“If we take cervical cancer, for instance, this is something preventable but how many regions have a comprehensive programme to do HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) vaccination? How are we going to make an impact on cervical cancer if we are not integrating HPV vaccination in the services provided?” he asked.
The Minister also spoke on the need for decentralisation of all training programmes across Guyana to expand its human resource capacity.
“Let’s map out the need for human resources in each region and how we work to ensure that we’re adding systematic development in the areas”, he advised.
Anthony also said that the Ministry will soon be implementing a Physician Leadership Programme where physicians can offer leadership.
