Rebecca E. Rollins / Partners In Health
A busy afternoon in the University Hospital emergency room in Mirebalais, Haiti. Dr. Angela Jaques speaks with a motorcycle accident survivor as activity swirls around them.
In settings of extreme poverty, improving surveillance and data systems will ensure that ministry of health focal points can build well informed strategic and operational plans for NCD response in the poorest populations. Training district level nurses and community health workers will help bring quality screening and treatment for NCDs and injuries closer to the patients and communities who need them. Improving supply chain infrastructure will expand access to essential NCD medicines to the very poor.
Examples of this work include:
- Dr. Ana Olga Mocumbi’s leadership in building Mozambique’s first national disease registry for NCDs and injuries.
- A key section of Closing the Cancer Divide, a guide produced by the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries (GTF.CCC), focuses on improving supply chain and access to essential cancer medicines in low and middle-income countries.
- NCD Synergies’ efforts to support ministries of health, which touches on many critical components of strong healthcare systems with regard to NCDs and injuries.
Strong health systems are contingent on a trained health workforce, functional medical facilities, well structured data systems, and effective supply chain networks. In order to better address noncommunicable diseases and injuries in the poorest and hardest to reach populations, we must be committed to strengthening healthcare systems across low and middle-income countries.