Region Six communities to benefit from improved health services

DPI, GUYANA, Friday, September 29, 2017

The Ministry of Public Health is working to ensure all health centres in Region Six are adequately staffed with their full complement of medical personnel.

In a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Alex Foster, the Ministry’s Focal Point Coordinator in the Region, said the aim is to “take health service to members in the community especially those who cannot afford to travel on a daily basis”.

Foster said that the Ministry is currently working to ensure all twenty-eight (28) health centres in the region have doctors who are general practitioners. “He or she can take care of the needs of the residents in that community instead of them travelling. In the case that anything is critical and they need further support then they will be referred to one of the hospitals that is closest to them.”

Additionally, there will be counsellors and health workers posted at health centres. “The role of the counsellors and the community health workers is to go out into the community around the health centres to ensure that the shut-ins and persons who are afraid to access the medical services on a daily basis can be encouraged and educated to do so”, Foster explained.

The improvement of health care delivery to communities in Region Six is part of the Ministry of Public Health’s preventative strategy to reduce the region’s “massive (health care) bill”.

“In our region, many people get to the hospital when they are on the verge of being in a state of far gone to be taken care of medically”, Foster added that it is being anticipated that with these improvements there will be a large upsurge of people accessing health services.

 

By: Tiffny Rhodius