(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown Guyana) Madam Chair – Ms Myrna Bernard; Chair of COHSOD – Hon Madam Florence Duperval Guillaume; Deputy Chair of the Executive Board of PANCAP – Prof. Peter Figueroa; Hon. Ministers of Health in the CARICOM Region; heads of delegations, representatives of fraternal organizations, civil society representatives, members of the media.
On behalf of the Government and people of Saint Lucia, I welcome you to this Sixteenth Special meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD). We are indeed pleased to be the host of this meeting.
This meeting is being held against the backdrop of the remarkable work done by the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), whose 18th meeting of the Executive Board was held here earlier this week. I was very pleased to be reminded that PANCAP’s first Annual General Meeting was held in Saint Lucia, eleven years ago.
The COHSOD meeting also follows CARICOM’s exemplary leadership in efforts aimed at combating the effects of Non Communicable Diseases. CARICOM led in September of 2007, when Heads of Government passed the “Declaration of Port-of-Spain; Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of Chronic NCDs”. CARICOM and its partners persisted and led this charge right up to the United Nations and were instrumental in bringing about the High Level Meeting of September 2011, when the United Nations identified NCDs as a global crisis and recognized its negative impact on development.
More recently, the Caribbean, through its representative (Barbados) on the Executive Board of the World Health Organization, and with the assistance of partners including PAHO, succeeded in ensuring that a PAHO Regional initiative on Vaccination became a global phenomenon. Due to the Caribbean leadership, for the first time this year, the rest of the world joined in the celebration of World Immunization Week with the theme “Protect your world, get vaccinated”. The importance of immunization in promoting health cannot be underestimated.
The agenda for this Sixteenth Special meeting of COHSOD highlights further opportunities for leadership by CARICOM. We have agreed to the formation of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and now have an opportunity to mold it into an organization which will enhance the health and well-being of our people whilst ensuring its sustainability and continued growth. Special thanks to our colleagues from Trinidad who have agreed to construct the physical facilities necessary to house CARPHA.
The Government of Saint Lucia through the Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Relations wishes to add its support to the leadership role being forged by CARICOM in the health and social sector. We recognize that Healthy Public Policy, Health Promotion and Primary Prevention are among the most effective means of improving the health of the entire population. However, we also recognize the value of individual responsibility in one’s health and recognize our role in providing an enabling environment to promote healthy lifestyle choices and practices.
My government initiated the Universal Health Care project in 2006, recognizing the impact of NCDs as well as the need to improve access and ensure equity in the provision of health care. To date, all persons who have been diagnosed as having diabetes receive free medication via this project. We are currently examining ways to expand this program to benefit persons with different ailments especially hypertension.
My Ministry of Health has started the process of implementing a Health Management Information System (HMIS) which consists of eight (8) modules, four (4) of which have already been implemented in eleven (11) Health Centers. The system will be implemented in a further nine (9) Health Centers and one (1) Polyclinic by July of this year. The remaining four (4) modules which include a ‘HIV Management’ module will be released in phases two and three of the project, due to be completed by the end of 2014. This system will enable patient health records to be accessible to physicians within hospital as well as primary care, ensuring better quality and continuity of care for patrons. It will also enable easier access to data and information for guiding health policy and is already enabling savings, as noted through the use of the Pharmacy/Central Supplies module.
The Government of Saint Lucia continues to improve health infrastructure to support health reform. We will soon be commissioning two major health facilities; the new national hospital in the north which is being funded by the European Union and the St. Jude Hospital in the south, which will be moved from its current location in the George Odlum stadium (where it has been housed since the fire of 2009) back to its original premises.
We recognize the value of partnership and community involvement as has been clearly demonstrated by the Caribbean’s response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through our date indicates that Saint Lucia has not recorded a case of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV since 2006, we have also noted an increase in our AIDS mortality since the end of the World Bank project. We understand the need for resource mobilization and integration of the HIV response into existing primary care services and encourage mechanisms to aid in the sustainability of health gains.
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, I therefore urge you to give fully to the meeting and make time to savour the swetness of the “Helene” of the west.
Once again, welcome to Saint Lucia and the Sixteenth Special COHSOD meeting.
Thank you.
