Health authorities from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean have agreed on a series of joint actions to improve their countries’ health systems, advance toward universal health coverage, and work with other sectors to improve social, environmental and economic conditions that impact on people’s health.
The actions were set out in a series of plans and strategies approved by the 52nd Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Regional Office of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which concluded last week after a week of deliberations.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Minister of Health, John Boyce, described the sessions which took place in Washington DC, as very important.
“Barbados as usual plays a very key role in making sure that its voice is heard, and that we benefit significantly from the offerings that PAHO make throughout the region,” he said.
Minister Boyce went on to reveal that a number of very important resolutions were tabled and passed, including the important question of Universal Health Care.
“We have agreed as countries that Universal Health Care is something which we must be able to achieve and it is something which is a right for our people.”
“The whole question of cost of this health care is a different matter, and indeed countries all over the world are at varying stages of being able to offer this Universal Health Care. As a policy, governments accept that Universal Health Care must be available to all without discrimination in whatever form. This has essentially been the practice in Barbados, and what has certainly happened is that along with this access to health care has come access to more and more speciality areas of health care especially at our Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH),” he pointed out. (TL)
