Paro, Bhutan | 5 September 2022
The
Seventy-fifth Session of the Regional Committee for WHO South-East Asia
commenced here today with health leaders emphasizing on continued efforts and
sustainable recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are enough lessons for us to know that we cannot do without investing
more in health hereafter. Our health system must be more resilient, accessible
and there should be collective actions. While health sector itself is bound for
reform, the health of our people is a critical ingredient to make all the
reform initiatives a success. Which is why the Regional Committee meeting
geared towards improving healthcare services means a lot to us,” said Dr Lotay
Tshering, Prime Minister of Royal Government of Bhutan, at the inaugural
session.
The Prime Minister said, His Majesty has repeatedly reminded us to use the
pandemic to reset ourselves so that the post pandemic path is literally new for
us. Therefore, Bhutan is undergoing historic reform in all public sectors.
Ms Dechen Wangmo, Minister of Health, Royal Government of Bhutan, said, “The
pandemic has made it clear that health is central to development. The Regional
Committee presents us with a unique opportunity to rethink, redesign and
rewrite strategies and interventions to accelerate and enhance equitable
quality health services and systems for the Region.”
In a virtual address, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said
“The pandemic is not yet over. The virus is still circulating, and still
changing… If the pandemic has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that
health is the most precious commodity on earth. A commodity that must be
cherished, prized and fought for every day. Not as a luxury for the privileged,
but as a fundamental human right.”
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, said, “How
we as a Region choose to recover from the COVID-19 crisis will determine how we
protect our many public health achievements, from maintaining our polio-free
status, to continuing to eliminate NTDs and other diseases on the verge of
elimination, be it lymphatic filariasis, kala-azar, trachoma or malaria. So
much is at stake and so much depends on the decisions we make now, and in the
weeks and months ahead.”
The Regional Director commended the Member countries for their resilience and
solidarity during the COVID-19 response, “which must continue to define how we
as a Region prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from acute public
health events”.
The Regional Committee is meeting in-person for the first time since the start
of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to strengthening preparedness and
response to public health emergency, the session will deliberate and review
other priority health issues, many of them impacted or accentuated by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
During the five-day session, a ministerial roundtable will discuss on
addressing mental health through primary care and community engagement in the
Region.
Also on the agenda are monitoring progress and acceleration plan for NCDs,
including oral health and integrated eye care; accelerating elimination of
cervical cancer; and reviewing progress towards achieving the 2025 end-TB
targets.
The high-level deliberations will include achieving Universal Health Coverage,
Sustainable Development Goals and health security in the Region through
stronger and more comprehensive primary health services, strengthened health
workforce education and training, and increasing national capacity and
ownership in health information systems and knowledge- and experience-sharing
to enhance efficiencies and strengthen people-centred comprehensive primary
health care.
The Regional Committee will also review renewed efforts around the eight
regional flagship priorities – to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023;
address NCDs through multisectoral policies and plans; accelerate reduction of
maternal, neonatal and under-five mortality; advance universal health coverage;
reverse antimicrobial resistance; scale-up emergency risk management
capacities; and eliminate neglected tropical diseases and TB.