Health Minister urges citizens to utilise services offered at health centres countrywide

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony encouraged citizens to pay more attention to primary healthcare and to visit their health centres on a regular basis. This practice, he noted, will result in the prevention of ailments or at least a delay.
In addition, he urged citizens to use preventative medicine and stick to a proper diet as part of a healthy lifestyle.

He was at the time speaking during a Health Centre Day activity at the Number 64 Village Health Centre.
The facility, which has been in existence for more than 50 years, saw less than 11 per cent of residents visiting to seek medical assistance. He added that with the new services being provided such as women wellness and dentistry, he remains optimistic that there will be an increase in the numbers.
The Health Minister, during his address to residents, stated that apart from regular visits to community health centres, persons also need to be health conscious.
“Even if we walk a little bit, that is helpful. In America there is an organisation that monitors these things, it is called the Center for Disease Control and they have advised that every person must at lease exercise for thirty minutes every day. So as an extension of what we are doing here we should have like village sports where everybody comes out and play; don’t matter your age. We need to have activities so that we can stay healthy.”
He posited that what is being done at health centres must be supported by what individual efforts.
He encouraged social interaction as an important method of reducing stress and also warned that substance abuse is one of the habits which contributes to bad health.
“The only way we can change that is if we have a responsible community that can identify the people who are in need and we can fix it. Then in our communities we have the older people who like to drink, this is a major factor that contributed to bad health,” he revealed.
Meanwhile, Advisor to the Health Minister and former Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ransammy while outlining the new services being offered at the Number 64 Health Centre explained that four new health centres will be constructed in the region which will be equipped with additional dental equipment.
Dr Ramsammy explained that Health Centre Days allow the community to get information on the facility and also to get involved.
In addition, Director General of Regional Health Services, Dr Vishwa Mahadeo recounted that Health Centre Day was held at each centre in the region annually when the current Administration was previously in Government.
“First of all, we have to get back to where we were and whilst we are getting back there, we are also improving all the services. We never had a dental chair here. Now we have an agreement that there will be a doctor here every morning and the same doctor is going to work every afternoon at another health centre.”
He urged the administration of such facilities in the region to implement programmes and to reintroduce those that were scraped when the People’s Progressive Party was ousted from office in 2015.
Further, he added that doctors will also be placed at all health centres in the region on a daily basis. He too encouraged persons to utilise the facilities being offered at the health centres rather than going to the outpatient department at public hospitals and overcrowding them.