Symposium looks at improving quality and not quantity of health care |13 July 2018

Around 100 health professionals and policymakers are taking part in the third annual symposium on person-centred care which is being held from July 12 to July 14.

The symposium has been organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Health Professional Council, the Seychelles Nurses and Midwives Council and the Seychelles Medical and Dental Council.

The first such symposium was carried out in 2015 and has been held every year since.

Two professors and experts with extensive knowledge of the person-centred care concept from the United Kingdom, Anne Hendry and Paul Rylance, are facilitating this year's symposium.

Person-centred care is a way of thinking and doing things that see the people using health services as equal partners in planning, developing and monitoring care to make sure it meets their needs.

Over the three days, participants will interact in a selection of presentations and consultations to better understand the concept and how to cater to patients’ needs by allowing them to be fully involved in their care.

Additionally, there will be group discussions and role-playing to identify future goals and targets in patient-centred care.

Health Minister Jean-Paul Adam officially launched the symposium yesterday at the Sheikh Khalifa Diagnostic Centre.

“Throughout the world, the buzzwords in health are the attainment of universal health coverage and the sustainable development goals. For Seychelles, the pathway towards these endpoints may reside in us investing greater efforts to improve the quality of our care, instead of the quantity,” Minister Adam stated.

The minister explained that Seychelles is doing extremely well in terms of providing quantity care with the public health facilities recording over 450,000 consultations in 2017. 

“This shows that access is there,” Minister Adam noted.

However to improve on these 450,000 points of contacts and provide quality health care, the public health services should transform these points of contacts into points of excellence, Minister Adam continued.

“The theme chosen for this year is ‘Leading quality through person-centred care’ with special emphasis on three C's: coordination, communication and continuity of care.”

Chief medical officer and chairperson of the Seychelles Medical and Dental Council, Dr Susan Fock-Tave, gave a presentation on the progress achieved in the last year and continuing challenges.

She revealed that even as certain achievements have been met in delivering person-centred care, there are still many challenges such as lack of communication and deficiencies in evaluating the concept’s implementation.

“Patient-centered care means that we need to make away with the idea that doctors and health professionals know everything and that the patients are just there to take onboard everything that they are being told,” Dr Fock-Tave told the media.

“Seychellois are now greatly educated, well-informed and can seek out any information from any source. So they already come for consultations with certain knowledge and our role is to listen to their concerns and wishes.”

She further stated that for the concept to work all medical staff should work in coherence and these include ambulance drivers, porters, record staff and cleaners, who, to note, were not present at the symposium.

Dr Fock Tave explained that the symposium’s discussions will also be made available to these absent staff through their different health centres.

Meanwhile, Professor Hendry who is from the University of West Scotland said patient-centred care is an opportunity for patients to take more control of their health and understand how to manage their conditions.

It is expected that at the end of the two days a series of recommendations would be submitted to the health ministry as to how best to maintain and sustain the quality of person-centred care.