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Primary Health Care Goals Not Met

Written by Pio Sioa
Sunday, 08 June 2008
Outgoing and Incoming : SMA past President, Lemalu Dr. Limbo Fiu with his successor, Dr. Ben Matalavea. A 1978 goal to make primary health care available to everyone in Samoa by the Year 2000 has not been met, and part of the blame is on the process of reforms taking a while to kick in. The issue was raised at the opening yesterday of the 61st Samoa Medical Association annual General Meeting at the Doctors Common Room inside the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital at Motootua. The Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, laid the challenge down for doctors in the public sector to pick up the pace by working together with other health groups like nurses and others in the private sector. “Can your association work together with other health workers,” PM Tuilaepa asked, when he spoke to officially open the SMA meeting. “Can you association recognize other health services available in the private sector?” The challenge is in line with the selected theme for discussions by the Samoa Medical Association during their two day meeting; Primary Health Care - Private Sectors’ Perspective. Samoa is a signatory to the 1978 international agreement that was intended to direct world attention on primary health care, as one of the key areas to be promoted for a healthier global population. Government approved several new reform policies in 1989 to help meet the goal, but the process has been slow according to the past President of the Medical Association, Le Mamea Dr. Limbo Fiu. “When you compare it to reform changes in the Public Works sector, the impact was immediate when private sector contractors were brought into the picture, but it has not worked like that with our health reforms,” Dr. Limbo told Newsline shortly before he stepped aside for incoming President, Dr. Ben Matalavea. “There are some functions like elective surgery where scheduled operations for patients are forced to be put on hold for several days, because doctors have to attend to emergency cases. “ These are cases that could easily be passed along to general practitioners in the public sector to do.” Immunization injections were another example where doctors operating privately could speed up the process but it is not being done. “Samoa boasted a 100 per cent immunization record at first, until a study showed that we’ve only immunized only about 80 or 90 per cent.” Dr. Ben Matalavea who started his tenure as SMA President this week, expanded on the points raised by his predecessor by putting his finger on the user-pay problem that prevents people taking advantage of private doctors service. Dr. Matalavea, a private practitioner himself, felt that General Practitioners, GPs, are not being fully utilized because people cannot afford the fees. “GPs could easily take over some of the workload in the public sector, like checking for Diabetes and High Blood Pressure or other Cardiovascular Diseases so that people don’t have to clog up the clinics,” he says. “If Government subsidises the private sectors costs, it will bring the fees down and make it possible for the general public to afford our services, and in doing so ease the workload for the private sector and more importantly speed up health care services in the country.” In an SMA press release highlighting the theme for discussion, outgoing President Dr. Limbo felt that the increasing incidence of the most common non-communicable diseases could be prevented. So too would be the heavy the economic burden on the country He emphasized” the need for the Primary Health Care system in this country to be addressed in a more coordinated and systematic way. “The current Primary Health Care System in Samoa needs further improvement with better strategies and collaboration amongst the various stakeholders to help in addressing the current problems.” Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment
Last Updated ( Monday, 09 June 2008 )

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