ARTICLE - SPECIAL HEALTH ASSEMBLIES

SPECIAL HEALTH ASSEMBLIES
(Haiti Libre) -

President Michel Martelly, in the presence of the Haitian Prime Minister, Dr. Garry Conille, members of government, of the diplomatic corps, parliamentarians, stakeholders and funders of the health system, officially launched this Monday, January 16, 2012 at the Ritz Kinam II, a 4-day Special Assemblies on Health around the theme "A unique health system, decentralized, and efficient to meet the needs of the population".

These Assemblies, conducted under the patronage of the Presidency proves, once again, the commitment of the President, to make efficient the achievements of various ministries. It shows, at the same time the need to bridge the gaps in the health system to make health care accessible to all citizens. The Head of State, believes in an equitable health system allowing for all children to have access to health, for the youth to fulfill their role in wealth creation, and to all Haitians to have the opportunity to grow in a country where life is good.

In her speech, Florence Duperval Guillaume, Minister of Public Health and Population declared "...the offering of care and services, such as the desire for knowledge, can not be presupposed; it is built step by step, and is forged in the light of our daily lives, our demographics, our social reality, both economic and political.

Our great challenge is the achievement of reducing the risk of the population to be affected by a disease. I call on the protection of health, for keeping health and the restoring to health of sick people. The challenge is considerable, because it is in fact, to avoid a real risk of a runaway of health inequalities that may widen even more, that has been created in our society today. That is why it seems urgent to act, by taking innovative methods, to relieve any form of medical paternalism, to meet this challenge with the means to promote a greater equality of opportunity for access; at least, to care and basic services.

It appears necessary to extend this problem of social inequality in health from that which crosses the society as a whole, without diverting attention from the specific problems to the sectors that are the most fragile. Also, removing financial barriers to care,.... that must be part of our thinking. More clearly, I speak of health financing, with the philosophy of putting the user at the center of the system, not only as beneficiaries but also as a financial contributor. If it has the means, the State reserves to itself the responsibility of the weakest links of the social chain.

This funding approach should allow us to extend progressively, not only towards less dependence in 20-25 years, but more importantly, towards the paternity of our assets, ....the legal aspects of getting there, should not be excluded. As for the issue of human resources, the key pillar of the system; we must fill this "all-out";... the type of human resources required by this new vision, to reach at the same time a real depoliticization, that has been designed more for the individual interests or of groups, rather than worrying about a real offer of care and services to the population.

Beyond the conventional resources, should we not think about developing other models, which are adequately supervised and that could acquire the necessary skills and contribute more effectively to the answer? Many of our resources and of living abroad, we should learn to integrate them into our programming.

Finally, the issue of retention must be addressed comprehensively, by defining among other things, an architecture of incentives clear and fair, especially for those working in remote areas. Levers that will allow the addressing of determinants for health, to reduce the critical findings that are not only sanitary, but the employment, education, environment policies that have significant effects on the social determinants of health.

Transversality issues, implies a change of mentality and a way of doing things, to a sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach..."