Seychelles, small states  of Europe come closer |15 May 2023

The Seychelles delegation at the meeting - Minister Vidot and PS Valentin (second and first left respectively)

Following two days of focused interactions with health ministers of the small states of Europe, assembled in Luxembourg for their 9th annual meeting, Seychelles Minister for Health, Peggy Vidot, met the regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe Office, Dr Hans Kluge, on Friday May 12, on the margins of that meeting.

The minister and the regional director discussed, at length, Europe’s new approach to measuring health system performance, which draws valuable lessons from the recent Covid-19 pandemic.

Both sides agreed that “governance” of the health system must be strong at all levels in order to improve health service delivery and raise the quality of health care, hence health system performance.

“Clinical governance in Seychelles is not as strong as it should be or can be,” said Minister Vidot. “But we are seriously working on that!”

The regional director offered to work with Seychelles in that area and to share Europe’s innovative dashboard of health indicators.

“We have much more in common with the small countries of Europe than one would intuitively think,” said the health minister.

“After our participation in your meeting last year, we had the opportunity to visit Malta. After that visit, Malta and Seychelles rapidly but diligently worked on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which was signed in Seychelles this week.

That MoU will certainly strengthen ties between Malta and Seychelles,” she said. “We will work to do the same with all countries present here.”

Informed of the upcoming “colloque” of the Indian Ocean on HIV/Aids, Hepatitis and Addiction to be held in Seychelles in November 2023 and in which France will be the only European country participating, the regional director showed great interest.

The minister hinted that attending the colloque might be an opportunity for the regional director for WHO Europe to visit Seychelles and see, first hand, Seychelles’ health system.

The meeting of health ministers of small states of Europe incorporates Andorra, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Slovenia.

WHO-Europe Office and Luxembourg invited Seychelles to join the meeting for the second consecutive year.

North Macedonia, Bhutan and Barbados were also guest-participants this year.

Minister Vidot was accompanied at the meeting by her principal secretary for health, Dr Bernard Valentin.

Press release from the Ministry of Health