Patients are top priority

THE Ministry of Health and Social Services is committed to a serious restructuring and a renewed focus on the patient as the motivating factor behind all ministerial actions.

‘The patient and our services to the patient is the basis of our purpose and our existence,’ Dr Norbert Forster, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, said during a workshop last week.Permanent Secretary Kahijoro Kahuure echoed this when he stated that the patient is the ‘primary client’ of the Ministry and he reminded health workers that ‘we are not their bosses, we serve them’.Kahuure spoke at the conclusion of a five-day enlarged Ministerial Management Committee Meeting, which reviewed the Ministry’s challenges and successes of 2009 and took resolutions for the upcoming year.Kahuure said the Ministry would implement its strategic plan at the start of April, including free medical care services to eligible State patients.Participants reviewed maternal health initiatives and resolved to make an improvement despite scarce resources.Kahuure said it was important to note that the Ministry would be held accountable. ‘not only for what we are doing or going to do, but for what we are not doing’.He urged Ministerial personnel to work harder and to improve the public image of health workers.