The Ministry of Health came under serious sustained fire during 2009 for everything from over priced medicines and kickback contracts at the KHMH to a string of infant mortality at regional clinics. But while emphasis has been placed on all that’s gone wrong – everyday, work continues according to procedures laid out in myriad policy documents. These include the Mental Health Policy, Strategic Plan, Belize Health Systems Profile, and Incident Report Policy and the patient’s bill of rights among others. Those have been wrapped up into a national plan and they were launched today. CEO Dr. Peter Allen discussed it.
Dr. Peter Allen, Chief Executive Officer – Ministry of Health
“We have a vision, we want to achieve the best quality healthcare services, efficiently delivered that are truly effective in a sustainable manner and we want to do it in a way that brings in the community and gets people involved in the decisions that affect their lives. So having defined where we are and having defined where we want to go, what are the plans we are going to put in place, what are the strategic plans that we are going to put in place, what are the targets we are going to set for ourselves in each of these programatic areas.
From HIV and Aids to oral health, mental health, to maternal and child care health, and what are the indicators, what are we going to do to measure our programs towards those targets because of course everyday we are running clinics, everyday we have issues, we are doing operations, vaccinations - we are always busy. But we have to have a strategy that defines how we move forward and through which we can measure our progress towards that clear vision. So these documents today really represent that framework of regulations, the baseline, the vision, the strategic plan to move us there.”
Michelle Vanzie,
“As we’ve stated before there is a vision of the Ministry of Health where we talk about accessibility, equity etc. The strategic plan basically shows us basically how it is we are going to get there. This is a plan that goes from 2009 to 2011. It is extremely important to have a plan so that we are not jumping as a chicken without a head. Now you know the strategic plan is accompanied by a budget next to it so you know what are the activities you are able to carry out with x amount of money. So for example we find that our budget was reduced by so much, that means we will then have to prioritize the activities that we have in our operational plan to see what you can do with what is provided to you with the reduction.
It is a very important guiding tool for the Ministry of Health. This cannot be absolute. It is a guiding document and so as exogenous factors come into play, we will then like I said have to prioritize, maybe change things a little bit slightly, of course keeping in mind what are the targets we need. It might occur in the way that maybe the tasks that you have set out to carry out ‘x’ thing for example now has to be changed so you have to do and approach it in another manner. But the overall guiding principle should be to try and achieve the vision of the Ministry of Health through our strategic and operational plans.”
The Ministry of Health also launched its website.
