National Health Plan 2003-2007

File Type:	Adobe Acrobat PDF	Document Type:	Strategic Plan
File Size:	7.53MB	Date Published:	November 2002
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Government is engaged in a programme of significant restructuring of the nation’s health services and the health sector. This National Health Plan (NHP) 2003-2007 outlines a strategy for the health sector over the next five years, which aims to achieve major improvements in services and the nation’s health.

The NHP 2003-2007 is a technical document for use by the Government of Guyana (GOG), our development partners and by all other stakeholders in the sector. The NHP 2003-2007 focuses on the strategic intentions of government, the policy directions for change and the priority actions to be taken. Under the new structural arrangements proposed, service delivery and decision-making related to such services would be devolved to managers at regional and district levels.

The NHP 2003-2007 has been developed from:

• Evaluation of the outcome of the previous health plans
• Estimations by the various technical programmes of the priority health needs
• The experience of the ongoing health sector reform programme which, over the last five years, has evaluated the performance of the Ministry of Health and made recommendations for the improvement of the health sector, including reform of the organizational arrangements
• A services review which has identified the key issues that need to be addressed for the modernization of health services
• Consultation with key stakeholders in the public, private and NGO sub sectors about the issues and challenges facing them in providing and receiving health services.
  

In addition, the Plan has taken into consideration the following policy documents:

• The National Development Strategy
• The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
• The Millennium Development Goal
• The CCHI
• Other international health charters to which Guyana is signatory.

The Ministry of Health has prepared this NHP 2003-2007 with technical support from the Institute for Health Sector Development and with funding support from the Inter-American Development Bank. It aims to involve all players in the process of improving and maintaining health. It does not contain the technical details of the various health programmes like Maternal andChild Health, Malaria, and HIV/AIDS, which can be found in the technical documents of those programmes. Neither does it provide the details of the technical analysis that supported the process of agreeing on the overall direction and priorities for the next 5 years. These are provided in Technical Annexes to the NHP and are available on request.

Rather, the purpose of this document is to:

• Provide a strategic framework for the sector with coherent goals, objectives and targets for the next five years
• Indicate the level of investment and recurrent costs required for achieving those goals, objectives and targets
• Guide the participation of all stakeholders in health development
• Facilitate monitoring of the performance of the sector at all levels.
  

The NHP 2003-2007 will be used to allocate new financial resources and to begin to reallocate existing resources in a more equitable, cost effective, information-based and target-driven way. It will support the technical programmes in the implementation of their activities and improve the integration of services across diseases and disciplines. It will refocus the Ministry of Health on strengthening its policy development role and support the achievement of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) goal of increasing access to social services including education, health, water and housing.

Implementation of the NHP 2003-2007 has already begun and key steps are being taken to lay the foundations for a more modern health care system with complementary roles for public and private sectors. This new health plan seeks to encourage the fledgling leadership evident today in the public health sector and to enhance various public health initiatives for which Guyana is rapidly gaining recognition. For example, the Filariasis Elimination Initiative through which salt has been fortified with a therapeutic (DEC) intervention, the food coupon program to be introduced for mothers of children between the ages of 6 and 24 months, the provision of locally produced antiretroviral drugs for HIV+ persons and the PMTCT++ program, the registration process for laboratories and the Hospital Inspectorate and several other programs demonstrate the leadership role that the public sector has already began to play.

The NHP 2003 –2007 must be viewed as a dynamic document. It is subjected to annual review and there would be an annual report reviewing the progress in its implementation and also changes in the plan.