Luanda - Angolan minister of State for Social Affairs Carolina Cerqueira Thursday in Luanda reiterated the Government's commitment to the health of Angolan people, particularly the most vulnerable populations, like children and young people in what she spoke of the commitment to increase the supply of services, in human resources and in improving the quality of service.
In her speech delivered at the first forum on primary health care and immunization in Angola, Carolina Cerqueira pointed to the construction of 85 modern health units.
Of this number, 54 were built under the Public Investment Programme (PIP) and 31 as part of the Integrated Programme for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM), fitted and equipped with new technologies.
The referred infrastructures increased the offer in the National Health Service by another 8,492 beds. reinforcing the reference and counter-reference mechanisms, guaranteeing the follow-up of users from the primary level of care to the tertiary level.
“The Angolan Executive made a huge investment in infrastructure, increasing the capacity to resolve the three levels of care to respond to the health needs of populations, from primary care to the most specialized and complex interventions at all levels.
We know, however, that improving the coverage of health services depends on the availability, access and capacity of health professionals to provide integrated and quality care, the basis for achieving universal health coverage according to international parameters”, she stressed.
The minister also said that in order to ensure its efficiency in the health sector, 33,093 new professionals were included in the general regime, with an increase of 35% of the total workforce.
The structuring investment made in the National Health Service, said the official, was also reflected in the improvement of the main indicators of the maternal-infant and nutrition programme, with the increase in access, prenatal coverage, institutional childbirth and reduction of institutional maternal mortality.
The minister also mentioned profound and structuring achievements in the health sector despite the existing economic and financial constraints that were exacerbated by the health emergency caused by Covid-19.
The Angolan Executive's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, she said, was quick and assertive, with the involvement of all sectors to ensure a coordinated response at the national level, allowing the National Health System to remain in operation.
He her speech, Carolina Cerqueira congratulated the health workers who, during the last two years, have remained at the forefront of this fight, with a high spirit of mission and responsibility, bearing, with serenity and courage, sacrifices of various kinds, facing difficult situations several times.
“We cannot help but thank all national and international, institutional and private partners, who have been by our side and allowed Angola to access means, vaccines and new technologies to face this pandemic. Although we maintain a low transmission rate of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus, we continue to record cases, so we appeal to all citizens to observe individual and collective protection measures”, she stressed.
To reduce mortality, contributing decisively to the well-being of the population and to the resumption of economic and social activities in the country, she called for the continuation of actions to protect the population against Covid-19, strengthening the vaccination programme at national level.
Carolina Cerqueira also mentioned the Executive's measures to expand the population's access to drinking water and food systems, as well as the emergency purchase of therapeutic milk and the replacement of supplementary products.
She referred to the opening of outpatient centers for health care for populations, especially in the most remote and drought-stricken areas, which had an opportune effect, having improved the fatality rate with the reduction of deaths from malnutrition.
In the field of the Great Endemic Diseases Programme, the minister stressed that the weakness of the social and environmental determinants of health continued to have a negative impact on malaria, trypanosomiasis, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and neglected tropical diseases, forcing increased attention, reinforcing and implementing transversal policies and programmes that lead to a rapid overcoming of the problems that still prevail.
In relation to malaria, she pointed to the record of a reduction in the fatality rate, due to the improvement in early diagnosis and adequate treatment. “With regard to tuberculosis, we have seen an increase in the network of services for the care of people with tuberculosis, with the treatment success rate increasing to 80% in 2021. The Nascer Livre para Brilhar campaign allowed, in turn, a significant reduction in the rate transmission of HIV from mother to child”, she stressed.
Carolina Cerqueira added that attention was also given to the chronic non-communicable diseases that most affect the population, namely arterial hypertension and diabetes, through the increase of health units of the first level of care that make the diagnosis and follow-up of users with these pathologies, as well as the coverage of physical rehabilitation service units at the first level of care, allowing for an increase in users' access to these services.
“The substantial improvement in medical and drug assistance was also accompanied by the improvement of logistics with grouped purchases, through a public tender, using the electronic platform of the Ministry of Finance”, she advanced.
Angola, she said, today has a stronger and more resilient National Health Service, but in order to achieve the goals set out in the field of increasing access to and use of health services provided by qualified professionals, reducing maternal and child mortality and in the fight against major endemics and chronic diseases.
However, the official recognises that there is an urgent need for a more significant investment in Primary Health Care, expanding coverage and improving the functioning of primary care health units as they are closer to communities, offering integrated packages of care and services to promote health, prevent disease, ensure adequate and timely treatment and provide rehabilitation processes that respond effectively and in a timely manner to the needs of the population, thus reducing the pressure on secondary and tertiary levels.
Despite all the gains mentioned, the minister recognises that there is still a lot to be done, pointing to the need to make further progress in order to increase access to health care for everyone and everywhere, and to reach the national commitment.
The government official pointed to the need to continue the reform of the National Health System, so that the gains achieved are consolidated and, with determination, the vices and insufficiencies that still exist are fought, and health professionals are educated to take greater responsibility, in the exercise of their functions, that the sick are looked at with more love, solidarity and humanism, that birth is viewed, from its conception, with a perspective of defending our future, as a people and as a country, making children more healthy and happy, giving them the opportunity to achieve better school performance, as they are the most important pillar of support for our future.
To Carolina Cerqueira, an important role can and must also play a stronger, more resilient, more equitable, financially more sustainable, more humane and better quality National Health System, technologically better equipped, more efficient and, above all, with an increasingly focused focus on the needs and circumstances of families and communities throughout the life cycle.
Carolina Cerqueira expressed her satisfaction with the signing of the Commitment to Health for Children, Women and the Fight against Major Endemic Diseases, an innovative initiative with a decisive impact not only on issues directly related to health but also on its social and environmental determinants, including to mobilize and empowering families and communities to improve their health, as advocates of policies that promote and protect health, as co-creators of health and social services through their active participation, and as self-caregivers and providers of care for others.
