The Bahamas became the twelfth country and first CARICOM Member State to join the Alliance on Primary Health Care in the Americas at a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony held on Wednesday at the country office of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The aim of the partnership is to pool funding, ideas and expertise to modernize clinics and expand preventative care in the country. Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville told reporters, “for The Bahamas this partnership with the Pan American Health Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank is about improving healthcare and the wellbeing for the residents of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.”
IDB Bahamas Chief of Operations, Steven Collins also delivered remarks at the signing ceremony. He explained the focus of the partnership, which includes “the construction and operating of clinics across several Family Islands, bringing essential health services closer to communities regardless of their size or location. It also includes an ambitious program to equip these clinics with telehealth services, which improves access and quality of care, especially in the more remote areas of the archipelago.”
Some of the other countries that have signed on to the alliance include Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay.
