Health education will soon form part of the school curriculum. It's just one of the plans Health Minister Lackram Bodoe intends to roll out in the short to medium term, alongside extended operating hours of health centres and an expanded CDAP programme. Rynessa Cutting has more.
00:00He's been on the job less than one month, but the new Minister of Health says he has a number of plans to improve the health sector,
00:08extending the operating hours of health centers nationwide.
00:12Between 2010 and 2015, there was a program in place where over 40 health centers were open and extended hours.
00:21The results of that showed that it was beneficial to the population.
00:25At this current time, I believe that only six of those health centers remained open.
00:30So we want to roll it back out on a phase basis, initially from six to maybe 12, and we go forward.
00:37TV6 News questioned where the ministry would find staff to cover the extra shifts.
00:42We plan to utilize the current resources, and also it provides an opportunity to engage the unemployed doctors.
00:51You will recall that there are several doctors who are unemployed at the moment,
00:55so this will be an opportunity as well to allow those doctors to be involved in this program.
01:01The health minister also has plans to extend the chronic disease assistance program to better serve the needs of the population.
01:09The issue of the shortage of drugs sometimes, so there's a plan to review the CDAP program with a view to enhancing it in terms of increasing the number of drugs and, of course, the quality of drugs.
01:24So those are the immediate projects that, you know, I'll be focusing.
01:27Meantime, the national primary and secondary school curricula are set to receive an update with the inclusion of a health education component.
01:36The big problem in this country is childhood obesity, and we believe that part of the solution will be education.
01:43So as you would realize, we are just four weeks into the government, so we're putting together all the policies and plans and so on.
01:50So I cannot give a definite time name at this point, but this is definitely an initiative that we will be looking at.
01:57The health minister says his key focus is ensuring that taxpayers get value for money.
02:02I'm also concerned, you know, in terms of whether over the last 10 years, whether the $8 billion that were spent on the health sector is providing value for money.
02:15My biggest concern as a minister of health remains the fact that, you know, we've had complaints from citizens trying to access timely health care, long waiting times, you know, both in casualty and for surgeries.
02:27And those are, those are things that we are trying to address in the very short term.
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