Health - Community services to get big boost |01 August 2018

Community health services are expected to benefit from expansions, a revision in the number for times doctors are attached to health centres and an improvement in the availability of transportation to facilitate off-site services.

This was decided by the management members in the Ministry of Health and staff of regional health centres in the northern and western areas of Mahé during two meetings held on consecutive Fridays.

The meetings which were led by the Minister for Health, Jean-Paul Adam, took place at the Anse Boileau and Beau Vallon clinics on July 20 and 27 respectively following visits to other facilities in the region.

During the meetings staff of both health centres and nurse managers representing the other facilities shared some of the successes in the delivery of service, mainly innovations made to improve patients’ experience and operations for staff.

Opening the discussions, Minister Adam commended the staff for their creativity and passion and conveyed the commitment of the Ministry of Health in improving service delivery.

“We conducted an initial annual review and from this some elements that need immediate focus have been identified,” Minister Adam said. “We want you to share the constraints that you face and also to share what you think should be done to improve health care services,” he said.

Highlighting several of the gaps identified in the 2017 Health Sector Performance Report, Minister Adam urged the staff to discuss their challenges but to also reflect on strategies that can be implemented at community level.

“From the report we have identified a few areas that need to be improved and we are developing specific strategies to improve on these,” Minister Adam added.

“We are here to take note of the major challenges encountered by community health centres, so as to holistically improve on service delivery.”

The 2017 Health Sector Performance Report highlighted increase in stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates and an increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and hospitalisation linked to it. Many of these incidences are linked to existing risks. The new strategies adopted by the Ministry of Health from the report require the commitment of community health centres, to identify risks early and give better and more consistent following to prevent and manage these illnesses.

Clinics visited include Port Glaud, Beolière and Anse Boileau in the west and Glacis and Beau Vallon in the north. It was apparent that the facilities faced many of the same problems in providing the services including limited doctors’ visits which does not allow for a more consistent follow-up as well as restricted space and inadequate access to transportation.

These will be addressed in phases. The Port Glaud facility will be getting more doctors consultation days and an expansion for the emergency area. In Glacis, the health facility will get also get an extension of the now confined waiting area as well as school dental services at the nearby institution.

(The accompanying photographs (courtesy Ministry of Health) show some highlights of the visits to the Beau Vallon, Beolière, Glacis and Port Glaud clinics).