Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia and Honorable Ahmed Naseem, Minister of Health has jointly soft-launched Maldives’ ‘Primary Health Care Demonstration Site’ in Faafu Atoll during a ceremony held by the Government of Maldives.
Through an integrated approach to service delivery, the project will conduct population-level screenings for noncommunicable diseases, strengthen healthy lifestyle counselling, and identify and refer patients for treatment for common noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), cancers and mental health conditions. Piloting at Faafu Atoll Demonstration Site, the reorientation of Primary Health Care system in Maldives includes a comprehensive set of services including screenings at population level for selected noncommunicable diseases, lifestyle counselling services, identification and referral for common cancers and selected mental health conditions. Appropriate service delivery models will be developed for integration and packaging of services, training needs analysis and capacity development for primary health care and advancing health information technology. The demonstration site will be a field lab and a hands on training centre.
In recent decades, health outcomes have improved substantially in the Maldives, including an increase in life expectancy, a decline in vaccination-preventable diseases, and a decline in maternal and newborn mortality. Several diseases have been eliminated, such as malaria, lymphatic filariasis, measles, and mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. However, the health sector of the country is currently facing significant challenges due to changing epidemiology, demographics and lifestyles, including the emergence of NCDs.
Noncommunicable diseases are estimated to account for 84% of all deaths in the Maldives. Today, the leading four causes of death in Maldives are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney diseases, and respiratory conditions. As per WHO’s first nation-wide STEPS survey of NCD risk factors, out of every 100 adults between 15-69 years, 16 have diabetes and 27 have high blood pressure. More than a quarter are current users of tobacco.
For the foreseeable future, NCDs, including mental health issues, will be a major public health and development challenge, not only in the Maldives, but across the Region. To achieve sustainable improvements in the outcomes of NCDs, an adaptive and resilient health system is essential.
In collaboration with the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health Maldives is prioritizing the reorientation of health systems to ensure access to high-quality, affordable, comprehensive primary health care (PHC), in an efficient and equitable manner. A reorientation of the health system is necessary to achieve universal health coverage.
“A core pillar of the Region’s ‘build back better’ vision is reorienting health systems towards quality, accessible, affordable and comprehensive primary health care (PHC), the most efficient and equitable way to achieve universal health coverage, which since 2014, has been a Flagship Priority.” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, “For that, the Faafu Atoll project will show how best to reorient health systems for NCD services specifically, providing a working model not just for Maldives, but for the Region and world.”
Among other areas of support, WHO Maldives has contributed to the development of a Primary Health Care Register using the District Health Information System (DHIS2) for the government, which will be used for early screening and monitoring patients at the demonstration site and to build an Island Health Profile database. Additionally, WHO is also supporting the implementation of Maldives’ new Multi-sectoral Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2021—2030, to accelerate progress towards the goal of reducing noncommunicable diseases by 25% by 2030 (‘25 by 30’).
WHO reiterates its commitment to support the implementation and rollout of this important project, which is aligned with the Government of Maldives’ vision to reorient and strengthen Primary Health Care services.