THE RECENT KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE HOSTED IN SAINT LUCIA, FOCUSED ON IMPROVING AND STRENGTHENING THE REGION’S HEALTH SECTOR.

The World Bank continues to be steadfast in providing assistance to islands in the region who are moving steadily towards UHC implementation, as a sustainable development goal to be achieved by 2030. To this end, a Knowledge Exchange Conference was hosted in Saint Lucia during the month of October, which focused on improving and strengthening the region’s health sector.

During the session, the pilot phase of the Performance Based Financing mechanism was discussed as it enters its implementation phase in Saint Lucia.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number three speaks to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all, regardless of age, race, location and income. This underlies the basis of the World Bank’s continued efforts to provide assistance to countries moving ahead with UHC implantation.

The Caribbean Flagship Regional Knowledge Exchange hosted in Saint Lucia in October was one such World Bank venture. This was achieved with support from the Korea World Bank Partnership Facility.

Edit Velenyi, Senior Economist with the World Bank, said: “There’s huge amount of opportunities to learn both within the countries and across the countries, as well as from Korea. Korea is not only a knowledge champion but it’s an OECD country with very good developmental outcomes and we wanted to sort of accelerate your opportunities in growth and development.”

The three-day event also facilitated discussions on Hospital Sector Modernization. This included a tour of St. Lucia’s premiere facility, the Owen King European Union Hospital located within the Millennium Heights Medical Complex.

The OKEUH was commissioned in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Management of the Hospital at the time was celebrated for its ability to transfer services between hospitals without any major glitches or loss of life.

Performance Based Financing is a new financing mechanism being introduced by the World Bank. The project will be piloted in St. Lucia at a number of health facilities around the island. Lessons learnt through the implementation of the project will form the structure and implementation of Universal Health Coverage in Saint Lucia.

“The Performance Based Financing is a very important financing mechanism that propels changes in provider behavior and also quality of care. We are very proud to be engaged on that. This is running under the Health System Strengthening Project. And the PBF is focusing on two diseases namely Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus which is very importation because it’s are causing a huge burden of disease actually in your country and the region” said Velenyi.

The Caribbean Flagship Regional Knowledge Exchange took its participants on a tour of the Anse La Raye Wellness Center, as one of the health facilities under the PBF program.

“That particular projects seeks to improve what we currently do in terms of the management of persons with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. We do a number of things but there are always areas for improvement. So when we consider the objective of the PBF this is going to help improve what we already do. So we are hoping that we can improve our services we offer to the client that may extend to blood work that may extend to EKG’s, that may extend to self-management programs, that may extend to exercise programs” said acting Public Health Nursing Supervisor, Yasmine Gabriel.

Fifteen Wellness Centres located around the island will participate in the pilot project. The World Bank continues to provide major assistance towards health sector development in the region, as the Caribbean thrusts towards Universal Health Coverage.