Quality Health Care For All

The Mount St John’s Medical Centre takes health care to a new level in Antigua & Barbuda. Long in gestation under the ALP, the UPP completed the hospital in our first term.

In the second term the Sunshine Government will:

• Effectively move public health to a comprehensive wellness model rather than solely or primarily a treatment and care approach and place a greater emphasis on prevention to promote long-term health benefits and health care savings
• Undertake a drive towards wellness for women by promoting and supporting screening services for diseases such as breast and uterine cancer, hypertension and diabetes
• Recommit to primary healthcare delivery in conjunction with our other PAHO and WHO commitments
• Pay special attention to chronic, noncommunicable diseases and the harmful effects of poor lifestyle choices that are known to have a detrimental impact on the health and wellness of West Indians
• Make a firm commitment to place far greater emphasis on comprehensive mental health care
• Bolster and expand all health care workforce training programmes across all specialties to ensure that highly trained professionals are available to meet the health care needs of the nation
• Modernize our nation's health system infrastructure not only to ensure healthy outcomes, but also to ensure judicious and effective use of health care resources to boost positive returns on health care investments
• Meet all our international health commitments including the national response to HIV/AIDS for prevention, care and treatment by 2010
• Revitalize the oral/dental health programme, focusing on a comprehensive prevention plan that includes children as a priority.

Recognizing the pivotal role played by the nation’s nurses in the delivery of health care, the UPP has made a firm commitment to providing:

• An increase in the number of students entering the School of Nursing
• An increase in nurses attaining Bachelors and Masters Degrees and
• A continuous upgrading of the nursing curriculum.