Minister of Public Health Hon. Cornelius de Weever says his ministry has embarked upon a capacity building process through the public health executing department Collective Prevention Services (CPS) to enhance staff performance, improve competencies and skills to carry out tasks thereby further improving the services provided to the Sint Maarten community.
"The Essential Public Health Functions are the fundamental set of actions that should be performed in order to achieve public health’s central objective of improving the health of our country’s population.
"Our Ministry is further developing its core tasks tailored to international health regulations which will further enhance overall our health care system.
"It is important that the staff understands how their work ties into the bigger picture of public health in general. We all need each other to ensure success in achieving and fulfilling our goals," Minister Hon. Cornelius de Weever told the Department of Communications on Thursday.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/World Health Organization (WHO), through the Public Health in the Americas Initiative, adopted the eleven Essential Public Health Functions necessary to strengthen public health practice, and developed a methodology that allows countries to evaluate their public health capacity, improve the essential public health services and develop and implement evidence based policy.
Learning about the essential functions of public health is an opportunity for the development in leadership and also for its role as a regulatory entity for the effectiveness and quality of the services of the health system.
The Essential Public Health Functions will be applied as a powerful methodological tool to promote and enrich institutional development, and as a strategy for the improvement of the levels of health and of public health practices.
The purpose of a public health agency is to optimize heath care for all. In striving to realize this purpose, the agency must be committed to partner with all relevant organizations in political-administrative, educational, cultural and financial-economic sectors.
In addition, the agency also must develop programs for the implementation of health policies; through national programs focused on improvement of health of the population and the environment, each with a number of consistent components.
The essential public health functions are: monitoring, evaluation, and analysis of health status; surveillance, research, and control of the risks and threats to public health; health promotion; social participation in health; development of policies and institutional capacity for public health planning and management.
Strengthening of public health regulation and enforcement capacity; evaluation and promotion of equitable access to necessary health services; human resources development and training in public health; quality assurance in personal and population-based health services; research in public health; and reduction of the impact of emergencies and disasters on health.
Approximately 19 public health ministry staff members, including CPS, Public Health and Social Development took part in the workshop that was held on July 23 in the conference room facilities at the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labour.