Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muna lauded the successful meeting of the 11th Pacific Health Ministers held recently in Fiji.<\/p>\n
The meeting solely focused on the Healthy Islands Journey project that was forged 20 years ago to improve the health of Pacific islanders.<\/p>\n
The meeting was held on April 15 to 17 with the hope that health officials in the region would address specific issues, set target dates, and try to meet their goals before the deadlines.<\/p>\n
The health of people in the Pacific has improved in the last 20 years but progress has been slow compared to other parts of the world. This could result in the Pacific region falling behind on the healthcare needs of its people.<\/p>\n
In the meeting that drew the participation of the World Health Organization, the CNMI, Guam, more than 10 Pacific island nations, special participants, observers, consultants, and secretariats, everyone agreed that increased coordination is needed to address the vision of \u201cHealthy Islands\u201d for its 20th anniversary.<\/p>\n
These include five visions where (1) children are nurtured in body and mind; (2) environments invite learning and leisure; (3) people work and age with dignity; (4) ecological balance is a source of pride; and (5) the ocean, which sustains us, is protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had all the Pacific health leaders come to the meeting to decide if the declaration that was made 20 years ago should continue or if we\u2019re going to add something else,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided that we wanted to go ahead and continue with it. There were some improvements since the declaration 20 years ago, but we still need to do more. With that declaration, WHO will go to the regional office and meet with the head of WHO on what the Pacific islands need,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Funding and support will then be included into WHO\u2019s budget to support the Healthy Islands initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we added this time to the declaration are target dates and trying to decide whether it should be regional or incorporated for the entire islands,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
When asked if there were any target dates for the CNMI, Muna conceded that there wasn\u2019t any target date yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we decided is to come up with our own target date in the CNMI. What we need to do is to work with someone on statistics and look at the current data and basically put a specific target date on what we\u2019re going to do for a specific issue within those years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest issues on island is non-communicable diseases. However, despite all the talks on NCDs, it just keeps rising.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what are we doing? We need outcomes and the healthy islands is catered to promoting the project,\u201d Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
CHCC is looking into possibly reopening the Transitional Living Center and possibly having a home for people that need caretakers for mental health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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