President Faure visits Ministry of Health |04 August 2018

 ‘Health workers need our respect’

“Society needs to respect doctors, nurses and the professional staff working in the Ministry of Health.”

President Danny Faure said this during a meeting with staff of the Ministry of Health (MoH) held at the Sheikh Khalifa Diagnostic Centre auditorium yesterday morning.

“One thing that I will never do as president of this country is to criticise a nurse or a doctor in public. The main reason I uphold this principle is that society needs to respect doctors, nurses and the professional staff working in the Ministry of Health,” President Faure said, noting that it has to start with leaders at the highest level.

President Faure was at the MoH on a familiarisation visit, to give his support, encouragement and to thank the health professionals on behalf of the government and people of Seychelles for the wonderful work they are doing.

It was also a chance for President Faure to interact with them, exchanging ideas and strategies and getting to know the challenges they face in the ministry.

His visits focused on the ministry’s administration blocks where he toured all the sections and offices and interacted with staff that were on duty.

Maison Hermitage, a three-storey building at Hermitage, was the first administration block that President Faure visited. He was guided on a tour of the building accompanied by the Minister for Health Jean-Paul Adam, principal secretary Bernard Valentin and other high officials of the ministry.

Maison Hermitage houses the ministry’s policy analyst and human resources units, the PS secretariat and the Health Production unit.

After visiting Maison Hermitage, President Faure and his delegation proceeded to the second administration block, the Blue Roof, which houses the public health administration, environment unit, family health and nutrition unit, the infection control unit, the epidemiology and statistic unit, Seychelles Nurses and Midwives Council, MoH project unit, the HIV/Aids prevention programme unit and the office of the Liaison Officer of World Health Organisation (WHO) among other administrative units and offices based in the basement, first and second floors of the building.

The last administration block visited by President Faure yesterday was the Red Roof which houses the Health Care Agency (HCA) administration and the minister’s secretariat.

The deputy chief executive of HCA, Kathleen Cecile, was present to guide the delegation on the tour of the old colonial style, two-storey building. The overseas treatment unit, the nursing directorate, accounts section, psychologist office, customer care, messenger’s office, human resource and the minister’s office where among some of the areas the president visited.

Following the visit to the three administration blocks, President Faure met health managers at the Sheikh Khalifa Diagnostic Centre auditorium to discuss challenges, human resources, budgetary constraints and other health issues such as the importance of putting emphasis on the prevention and surveillance of diseases as part of MoH’s long-term strategy.

“I think it was a very positive interactive discussion that is in line with strategies that the president and the government are currently implementing. The staff really appreciated the meeting,” Minister Adam said after the meeting.

Commenting on the lack of human resources, Minister Adam said that compared to this year when the ministry will acquire the services of only 10 graduates, MoH will have around 30 Seychellois nurses as of 2020 as the strategic plan caters for more intake of nursing students at the National Institute of Health and Social Studies (NIHSS).

“We also have a specialisation programme for our doctors and thirteen health professionals are going on the programme this year. We have put in place a long-term plan to define fields of specialisation in need,” Mr Adam said.

Minister Adam also said that the plan for the re-development of the Seychelles Hospital and other health centres is still on.

The accompanying pictures show President Faure touring the different units yesterday.