The Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, has said, at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, that steps have been initiated in Sierra Leone towards meeting the Universal Health Coverage through a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) to assess the current National Preparedness for Disease Outbreak in the country.
Delivering a statement at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva on Universal Health Coverage, the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, reiterated that strategies have been put in place to address the identified gaps towards meeting the universal health coverage, adding that all persons in every community should be able to access preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative Health Services of sufficient quality whilst ensuring that the use of these services does not expose them to financial hardship.
He said the country had earlier gone through ten years of civil war in the nineties, exposed to the worse Ebola epidemic in history and a devastating mudslide episode in August 2017.
These three events, according to Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, continue to suppress the economic growth of our country and thus hinder our outreach to deliver Universal Health Services.
He maintained that, as a nation, three concrete steps have been initiated towards the Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This, he said, include the Free Health Care Initiative, targeted health intervention for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five.
This Programme, according to Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, has now been expanded to other vulnerable groups such as amputees as a consequence of the civil war and Survivors of Ebola scourge to access Free Medical Care.
He revealed that, as at September 2018, the program will be expanded to include all school children as we continue to address the challenges, and address the high-out of pocket expenditure for health services in 2017 for which the government of Sierra Leone enacted the Social Health Insurance Scheme, disclosing that necessary structures are being put in place to start its implementation.
The Minister of Health and Sanitation thanked the International Partners, including the World Health Organization, World Bank, Global Fund, and advocates to them to -align the existing projects to provide the requisite infrastructure equipment and provide encouragement.
The Sierra Leone delegation to the World Health Organization, headed by the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, include the Technical Team: Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brima Kargbo, the Director of Policy Planning and Information, Dr. Samuel A. Kargbo, the Director of Food and Nutrition, Madam Aminata Shamit Koroma and the Deputy Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer One, Matron Mary Fullah.