MOH/PAHO conducts SPAR assessment with stakeholders

The Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organisation are hosting a two-day meeting with the International Health Regulations National Focal Point Committee to develop Guyana’s 2024 State Party Self-Assessment Annual Report (SPAR).

The IHR Focal Points over the next two days will deliberate on key priorities and actions needed to accelerate the Ministry of Health’s preparedness in response to further health outbreaks and pandemics.

Minister of Health, Honourable Dr Frank Anthony attended the first session of this morning’s meeting where credited the current improved system but also spoke extensively on Guyana’s plans to improve surveillance and other key areas to ensure Guyana’s preparedness for further outbreaks or pandemics.

“I would say in three years, what we have seen are changes in how we do surveillance, changes in how we improve our labs, and changes in the training that we have offered to the staff that is working in our industry, and also changes in terms of collaboration with other agencies because we are able now to work better together and be able to share information,” he said.

The Health Minister highlighted that the National Public Reference Laboratory under the Ministry is now considered a Level 3 facility and has made advances in detection (of viruses) capabilities through its integrated surveillance systems.

“We have been doing the surveillance and we are now able to detect these cases, which is very important because in some instances we detect these cases, we are then able to take measures to contain any type of spread within the community,” he said.

Dr Anthony said with the Ministry’s approval for the pandemic fund, the aim is to create a unified system system across all health facilities across the country. He disclosed that this expansion will incorporate telemedicine and environmental health into

surveillance.

“We want to use the existing infrastructure of telemedicine, where we have internet connectivity at these 84 sites to enhance how we do surveillance. And we also, apart from looking at surveillance in the human population, we are now looking at how we integrate this with the environment and with mental health. So we can have a truly one health approach to surveillance in the country,” he explained.

The Minister applauded the core team for their contributions thus far in identifying deficiencies through assessments thereby paying the way for recommendations to strengthen the country’s current capacity.

“When we finish, we should have a very comprehensive system, where we will be able to monitor a lot of parameters and help to keep the Guyanese people safer and healthy,” he concluded.

Present at today’s meeting were also PAHO/WHO Guyana Representative, Dr. Kim Eva Dickson; PAHO Advisor on Health Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control, Dr. Rainier Escalada; IHR/ National Focal Point Coordinator, Dr Anand Persaud; other Directors and Programme Heads of the Ministry of Health and collaborating stakeholders.