Guyana Health Ministry to launch Fitness Camp

By Caribbean Medical News Staff

The Ministry of Health of Guyana is launching a health and wellness Camp in keeping with its commitment to the National Health Strategy 2014.

Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, told members of the Guyana media that land has been allocated for the construction of a wellness park/playfield as part of the focus of the wellness initiative to  fight the burgeoning problem of  Non-Communicable Diseases  there. NCDs are not contagious but pose a major health challenge in the Caribbean. Some cancers, diabetes, hypertension, obesity among other illnesses, are all considered to non-communicable diseases, many of which are related to poor diet and bad lifestyle habit including a sedentary lifestyle.

“We will be fixing the empty plot of land opposite Square of the Revolution that is the property adjoining the Ministry of Health. This area will be used to create a wellness Camp and Promenade at the centre of Georgetown, convenient for citizens from the heart of the city, students in school, employees of Government agencies and businesses around the area along upper Brickdam,” the Minister said.

According to the Minister the playing field will lend itself to a number of fitness programmes.

“The mini playfield/park will be used to promote a series of robust activities, where our Wellness Warriors will be able to challenge each other to exercise…for example, to a volleyball game between a team of Cuban doctors and their Guyanese counterparts”, he added. “We will be focusing on combating four categories of NCDs, including diabetes which leads to a lot of health complications, hypertension, which leads to cardiac events, Cancers, including breast cancer and cervical cancer; and chronic pulmonary diseases like asthma.”, he continued.

The Minister indicated that NCDs were causing much prolonged sickness, loss of productivity, loss of life and hospitalizations and a burden not only to the patient but the health care bill. He said that the strategy was aimed at getting Guyana well, active and involved in a healthy lifestyle.

The programme is to last for the next five years.

 

Leave a Comment

Security Question * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Powered by WordPress