BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Federation’s health sector is set to undergo a transformation over the next five years, with Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Patrick Martin’s announcement of a new focus on community healthcare.
The top doc was a guest on last Saturday’s (Nov. 14) edition of WINN FM’s radio programme “Inside the News”, during which he gave a brief glimpse into what residents of St. Kitts-Nevis could expect from healthcare providers in the future.
“What the general public will see over the next three to five years is an emphasis on community work a.k.a. primary healthcare, whereby the public sector will deliver a diverse array of health services from the 17 health centres in the Federation,” said Martin. “The model for this is the Pogson Medical Centre in Sandy Point; other facilities will roll out similar resources. There will be a gradual retrofitting of all the health centres.”
According to the CMO, in addition to general medical treatment, these resources would include dentistry, immunisations, pap smears and care of expectant mothers. Patients can also expect to see laboratories, X-ray departments, pharmacies and physical therapy facilities.
The focus on primary healthcare is associated with the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases in the Federation. Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicated that 20 percent of the adult population is diabetic, while obesity rates for males and females stood at 37 percent and 52 percent respectively.
“We have to change the way in which we do things. The public health sector was built to fight infectious diseases during the colonial era. Those diseases have largely been conquered. We’re now dealing with diseases of lifestyle, and the methods used must be different,” Martin stressed.
“With the comprehensive array of medical services that will be offered by the health centres, persons won’t have to leave their communities and travel to the hospital for medical treatment. A cadre of community health workers will be trained; persons from the community with diabetes will be able to reach out to persons with pre-diabetes or who are overweight for counselling.
He added: “Doctors are important, nurses are important, but it takes five years to train a nurse and 10 years minimum to train a doctor. A community health worker can be trained in 10 weeks or less. You can train that person to engage persons in the community in behaviour change so we can address the lifestyle issues we have.”
Martin stressed that community health workers were perhaps “the most critical, the most vital” human resource elements in the emphasis on primary healthcare. He warned that without conscious efforts to change lifestyles and daily routines, obesity and diabetes rates would continue to rise over the next decade.
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