Honorable Halifa Sallah, the presidential candidate for PDOIS, has promised to address the country’s health problems if he is elected into office in December. He said this as he tours the country to have face-to-face discussion with Gambians on his party’s Transformative Agenda that seeks to bring about a change of system.
In the agenda, the party seeks to bring changes to eradicate poverty, injustice, ignorance and address the economic and political among other problems of the country.
“PDOIS-led Government would build minor health centres in small villages, major health centres in big villages and urban wards, district hospitals in districts or urban constituencies, and referral hospitals in each region or urban municipality,” he said.
“The Health Ministry will formulate strategic plans, programmes and projects to ensure that the four components of health, that is, its preventive, curative, rehabilitative and restorative aspects, are institutionalised at each level of the health delivery system; be it at the primary stage, at minor health centres in villages, or the secondary stage at major health centres and clinics in districts or referral hospitals in the regions that would that would serve as the tertiary stage of the health delivery system in those areas,” he added.
He continued that a PDOIS led Government would maintain a community-based health system where residents in communities would be trained to handle first aid such as taking blood pressure, temperature, measuring blood sugar and other primary services before referral to minor or major health centres district and regional hospitals.
He said the foundation of people centred development is to ensure the building of a society where the citizen is not only a child of his or her parents but a child of the neighbourhood, the community and the nation at large, who must be catered for from prenatal stage of life to old age and death, and must be guaranteed all the social services required for good standard of living and general wellbeing.
He said a PDOIS led Government would introduce counselling and social protection services to ensure that each mother is protected to have a healthy mind and body at the prenatal stage, adding his government would train prenatal attendants in every community to provide counselling and guidance to couples and mothers on prenatal care and childbirth.
