KELLY LORENNIJ
The Ministry of Health and Human Services (MoHHS) opened its session with the Marshall Islands Mayor Association (MIMA) by outlining a report of successful and ongoing screenings, surveys, and redevelopment plans.
Minister Kalani Kaneko acknowledged MoHHS as the “most criticized” of the ministries, and was commended by MIMA for the improvements on sanitary care and the development of the “super” nurse practitioners program which has greatly increased the number of local practitioners.
Nevertheless MIMA had several items to bring up with the ministry. First, there is a great need to regularly re-supply outer island dispensaries, if not increase their number in the outer islands. Issues were raised about emergency patients flown in and left with no ready-transport to get from the airport to the hospital. The most common question was why medical team visits to outer islands are few nowadays.
Throughout the week’s numerous meetings the recurring issue of financial support for projects were brought up by both sides. In the case of MoHHS, budget to mobilize varies for each team — the dental visits being the most doable.
The MoHHS presentation also noted that except for Chuuk, Majuro and Ebeye have the highest TB rates in the region.
Read more about this in the April 27, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.