By Carlena Knight
Dozens of top health officials from around the region gathered at the Royalton Antigua resort yesterday for the first day of the three-day Caribbean Conference on National Health Financing Initiatives.
A number of sessions will be held this week with the focus on building health financing and boosting primary healthcare.
A brief opening ceremony took place on Wednesday morning during which Antigua and Barbuda’s Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph gave the feature address and spoke on the significance of hosting such a conference.
He said that through these discussions a way forward can be mapped to address all of the weaknesses that the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted.
“We must appreciate that this conference can be pivotal in addressing the fundamental challenges we face in Antigua and Barbuda and the Caribbean.
“One of the things we are going to have to do is be open and honest in the context of what we call culture and lifestyle in the Caribbean and throughout the world. That very culture might very well be instrumental for us to achieve ultimate healthcare services as well as a healthy nation.
“We must not waste the lessons of Covid. Covid was devastating but Covid did something well for the Caribbean; I know I speak for this healthcare system that it graphically exposed the weaknesses of our system. Every Caribbean island discovered that they were not prepared for Covid,” Joseph said.
He is of the opinion that in order for healthcare systems to improve, “they must go back to the basics” and enhance primary healthcare systems around the region.
“If we cannot get the primary healthcare system right, then it will place a burden on our secondary and tertiary services and, as we are seeing it now over the Emergency Room in the hospital, it is difficult to cope.
“If nothing that I have said this morning, I admonish that you listen to this. We have to look closely at our primary healthcare system and invest in it. The highest return of investment in the healthcare system is dollar for dollar what you invest in the primary healthcare system,” he admonished.
Another area of focus he said, is educating youth in proper health practices.
This, he added, will help cut costs when these same youth transition into adulthood and thus towards greater health risks.
“Investing in the primary healthcare system contemplates an appreciation for education, especially at the primary school level.
“Many of the bad habits – let me be very frank – that we all have engaged in in terms of our health could have been avoided if at a very young age, the way you were taught to walk, the way you are taught to speak, you were given lessons on how to stay healthy,” Joseph said.
The conferences have been organised to share knowledge, test ideas, identify best practices and develop regional networks of institutions and experts for ongoing collaboration.
It is the first time in two years that the conference is being held. The last meeting took place in 2019 in Anguilla.
Representatives from Anguilla, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US were present.
The theme of this year’s event is ‘Confronting the financing challenges of Covid-19 and the unfinished universal coverage agenda’.