Doctors and nurses from across the ten administrative regions of Guyana have benefited from a Trainer of Trainers workshop on the HEARTS Technical Package, the Ministry of Health has stated.
The HEARTS initiative is geared at better assisting healthcare professionals in the prevention and early detection of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension within primary healthcare settings.
According to a Ministry of Health press release, the three-day workshop, which was held at the Pegasus Hotel, was a collaboration between the ministry and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). It served as both a refresher for the doctors and nurses and an opportunity for them to explore the current situation of the HEARTS initiative implementation and reporting in their respective regions.
According to the release, during the workshop, the participants worked on developing an effective system that will improve the overall efficiency of this initiative in the regions.
Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony, who addressed the opening, said that although over 100 health centres have implemented the HEARTS initiative thus far, proper surveillance reporting and data collection are lacking in the regions, hence the need for the workshop. A robust surveillance system and reporting forms were expected to be developed during the workshop to capture the data of this initiative, the release said.
It quoted him as saying, “So, I want the team from the Chronic Disease Unit to work with you [the participants] to develop that stronger surveillance system because I would like to see every month the statistics of how this is being implemented and what is happening with our patients… We have various forms on how reporting should be done; these forms were crafted years ago and we continue to use them, but in the light of what we’re trying to do, these forms may be obsolete, and therefore, there’s nothing wrong with developing new forms that can capture the data that we need.”
Meanwhile, the release said, Advisor of the Health Systems and Services at PAHO’s Guyana Country Office Daniel Albrecht told participants that over the period of the workshop, they would be expected to partake in discussions and provide avenues that can improve the HEARTS initiative and identify solutions to the challenges being faced in the regions.
Among those present were Chief Medical Officer Dr Narine Singh, Director of Non-communicable Diseases Dr Latchmine Lall, Focal Point of High Blood Pressure and the HEARTS Technical Package Dr Michael Pereira, Coordinator of the Chronic Disease Unit Dr Daniele DrePaul and representatives from the Mount Sinai Health Systems, the MoH Chronic Disease Unit, and PAHO/WHO.
