By offering inexpensive entry to high quality well being providers, Major Well being Care (PHC) kinds the cornerstone for advancing in the direction of common well being protection (UHC) and in the end for bettering folks’s well being and well-being throughout the life-course.
In a nutshell, it is about patient-centered care which is a basic human proper. PHC was recognized as the important thing to the attainment of the purpose of Well being for All in 1978 via the milestone declaration of Alma-Ata in 1998. Mauritius was one among the many main international locations within the African area to embrace the spirit of PHC and Alma Ata with the institution of Space and Group Well being Centres. By the Astana Declaration of 2018, which Mauritius adopted, PHC was revamped to make sure that everybody in all places is ready to benefit from the highest potential attainable customary of well being.
Mauritius boasts a UHC service protection index of 66, which is considerably larger than the WHO African Area (AFRO) common of 44 and solely a few share factors decrease than the worldwide common of 68. One of many important causes for its robust UHC efficiency is the huge community of well being services providing primary free PHC to nearly all of the inhabitants inside a distance of lower than 5 kilometers.
The Ministry of Well being and Wellness (MOHW) recognized Built-in Major Well being Care Providers as the primary precedence of its Well being Sector Strategic Plan 2020-2024. The MOHW thus requested that WHO assess the present standing of the PHC strategy in Mauritius and supply suggestions to make sure that the quickly increasing community of well being services can successfully maximize the extent and equitable distribution of well being and well-being among the many Mauritian Inhabitants.
Certainly, the PHC strategy goals to supply on the earliest potential stage people-centered, built-in and important well being providers that are of top of the range, in addition to being accessible and inexpensive. It covers the continuum of care, from well being promotion and illness prevention to remedy, rehabilitation and palliative care, and goals to shift efforts from a reactive biomedical strategy to sickness in the direction of a extra holistic and proactive strategy specializing in folks’s well being wants and well-being throughout the life span.
Since November 2023, a crew of WHO consultants has been working with the MOHW to organize the Scoping Mission which passed off in Might 2024 to: conduct a deep dive into Mauritius’ PHC strategy; determine its strengths and weaknesses, alternatives and challenges; suggest excessive stage suggestions for enchancment; and develop a roadmap for the operationalization of those suggestions.
The Director of Well being Providers on the Ministry of Well being and Wellness, Dr Prithviraj Ramputty, explains the rationale behind the mission: “It was time for us to take a recent have a look at our journey because the calls for on the PHC system in Mauritius have advanced considerably since independence in 1968.”
To attain these goals, the who crew of consultants carried out a scientific overview of major and secondary knowledge, earlier assessments, present well being insurance policies, laws and techniques. Additionally they carried out intensive stakeholder consultations together with visits of well being services and interviews of key informants. “The interplay with the consultants was very frank and open. They shared their views and expertise from different international locations. It was clear from very outset that we needed to contextualize the method and the drafting of the roadmap for the approaching 5 to 10 years,” Dr Prithviraj Ramputty explains.
The mission’s preliminary findings have been introduced to the Minister of Well being and Wellness, Dr Kailash Jagutpal, and senior officers throughout a closing stakeholder assembly in Port Louis on 24 Might 2024.
Launched by WHO skilled Dr Benson Droti, the important thing suggestions embrace: i. refining the Bundle of Well being Providers and interventions on the numerous ranges of service supply; ii. revising staffing norms to match these providers and interventions; iii. establishing and institutionalizing high quality administration methods; iv. digitalizing well being care; v. enhancing the supply and utilization of knowledge to tell choice making; vi. non-public sector engagement; vii. decentralizing well being service administration at sub-national stage (together with devolution to scale-up delegation of authority for higher autonomy in choice making); and viii. strengthening the nationwide regulatory framework for prescribed drugs and lifting up of well being promotive and preventative interventions.
In his allocution, the Minister of Well being and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Jagutpal, famous that Mauritius possesses a powerful 200 well being care factors earlier than remarking that the general public well being sector nonetheless wants to enhance when it comes to accessibility, making well being care providers extra acceptable from the sufferers’ views, high quality of care, well being fairness, group engagement and well being financing, amongst others. “This mission comes on the proper time as we’re within the course of getting ready the second Well being Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP).”
The WHO Consultant, Dr Anne Ancia, additionally emphasised the timeliness and significance of the mission’s suggestions: “Elevating Mauritius’ PHC strategy will be certain that the mandatory well being system reorganization matches the increasing well being facility community and the providers on supply, to successfully enhance the well being and well-being of all Mauritians.”