Health Managers and coordinators of national health programmes attended a retreat to review the Vanuatu Health Department’s 2020 plans.
The participants also reviewed annual reports of health programmes implemented throughout this year and their impacts on the communities.
The Acting Director of the department, Donald Pelam, talked about the importance of aligning strategies and business plans to the global and National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP).
He encouraged the staff to use graphics and data in their presentations because it helps him and other employees such as the Director General and the Minister to get more information for better decision making.
The department has engaged other government departments in its retreat for the first time this year. Acting Director Pelam said this is to allow other staff to share ideas and experiences on how they integrate their programs.
”For far too long the health sector had been working in isolation from other sectors,” Mr Pelam stressed.
One of the outcomes of the National Public Health Retreat is the development of the National Public Health Strategy.
Many strategies which are not in line with the NSDP, thus it needs to refocus and set priorities right, said Mr Pelam.
Some of the challenges facing health service in rural areas highlighted during the retreat were lack of human resource in public health programs such as Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and environment health, health trends and issues such as water and sanitation, high cost of health services, understaffed, poor road condition and network coverage, poor housing conditions, inadequate facilities and GRT anomalies.
Photo supplied Caption: Participants of the three-day National Public Health Retreat