By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The World Health Organization (WHO) has on Monday 1st May, 2023 in a press conference at Radisson Blu, Freetown, launched the Universal Health and Preparedness Review (UHPR) in Sierra Leone
Making Sierra Leone the first in the ECOWAS region, second in Africa and fifth in the world, the launching of the UHPR was honoured by the health minister, a high powered delegation of World Health Organization and galaxy of journalists.
The Assistant Regional Director for WHO Africa Region, Dr. Lindiwe Makubalo explained that the Universal Health and Preparedness Review launched in Sierra Leone was an initiative that would provide a holistic view of emergency preparedness and interlock emergency preparedness with Universal Health Coverage (UHC). “This approach aligns critical gaps identified in emergency preparedness and prioritizes timely technical and financial support leading to predictability and sustainability, and hence resilience,” she added.
The WHO Africa Regional Director congratulated Sierra Leone for volunteering to undertake the review and for occupying those top positions as the process came to fruition. Makubalo expressed that Sierra Leone had registered significant progress in health security based on its recovery from EVD, COVID-19 and other recent health emergencies.
“Based on Sierra Leone’s experience for dealing with health emergency including EVD outbreak, COVID 19, and other health emergencies, we hope that this UHPR will serve as the best practice to other countries and will help us to learn from one another to develop strategies for improving our preparedness and response efforts,” the Assistant Director further expressed.
Lindiwe Makubalo hoped that the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and other severe pandemics signaled the need for collaboration of broad-based, whole of government and whole of society approaches, involving relevant stakeholders beyond the health sector. She affirmed that WHO’s strong commitment to support the government to promote, provide and protect health and keep the people of Sierra Leone safe and serve the vulnerable.
Addressing the WHO delegation, the Sierra Leone Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Austin Demby commended WHO for sending such a huge delegation to Sierra Leone. The Minister expressed that His Excellency President Bio learned from the experiences of Ebola and assured that such would not happen again in Sierra Leone. In fighting COVID-19 the Minister explained that the President involved all the ministries and civil society organizations. He recalled that the President closed the borders, the port, the airfield and also imposed inter-districts isolation. “And that was why the people thought COVID-19 was not as deadly as Ebola, Dr. Demby said.
The Minister of Health elucidated the Universal Health Coverage and how it had been implemented in Sierra Leone to ensure that everybody was healthy. He said that patients were sorted based on their problems and treated separately. The Ministry continued that they continuously advised patients to report sicknesses early so that they could be treated early.
Dr. Demby also acknowledged the significance of the Universal Health and Preparedness Review and said it would play a greater impact in helping them to ascertain what was working and what was not working effectively so that those gaps could be filled within the shortest possible time. He added that they were working on a mobile app that would also help in drastically reducing health mortality rate by identifying where issues were arising and finding immediate solutions to them. On that basis the Ministry said there would not be need for yearly report but weekly.
The Director of Health Security Preparedness Department for WHO Health Emergency Program, Dr. Stella Chungong also commended Sierra Leone for achieving the faith position in the world in undertaking that venture. She added that UHPR would achieve and attain the highest emergency response as it would help to prevent the international spread of diseases.
