THE MEETING SERVED TO ENSURE THAT NEW INITIATIVES ALIGN WITH GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES AND STRATEGIC PLANS.

Various heads of Departments within the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs recently met to discuss and evaluate new initiatives for the budget cycle for fiscal year 2026 – 2027.

The objective of the meeting was to prepare and familiarize the heads with the guidelines for submission of the request of funds for new initiatives and to ensure they align with the government’s policies and strategic plans.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belmar-George engaged the Public Health Primary Care team and reiterated to the Heads of Departments the need to gain a great understanding of the budget cycle, gather data to support new initiatives and ensure the proposed initiatives support the government’s financial goals.

“Earlier in the year, the Public Health Primary Care team, that is all of the Heads of Departments did an assessment to look at where the critical gaps that affect our services exist. We also did a review of the data, looking at the patient outcomes in terms of persons who use the health care facilities and also where the outcomes may not be what we are looking for. So, coming out of the data and both the assessment of the health systems, we look at where the priority areas are, which fed in the development of our new spending requests. So, today the various heads were presenting those new initiatives to the team to ensure that they are holistic, complete and accurately address the main priorities as well for the government.”

Dr. Belmar-George noted that one of the key priority areas for the government in the budget cycle is health and wellness, resilience and strength in the healthcare system to continue with the implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

“We note for the efficient implementation of Universal Health Care, primary health care strengthening and quality systems are quite critical to ensure proper implementation. So given that premise, we have already drafted majority of our spending request in preparation for submission towards the 2026 – 2027 budget cycle.”