Saint Lucia hosts UHC conference

Saint Lucia: The Korean World Bank Partnership Facility and the Government of Saint Lucia brought together 70 high-level delegates from seven countries to attend the Universal Health Care Flagship Caribbean Knowledge Exchange Conference. The conference took place from October 25 to 27.

The conference discussed critical topics with an aim to build a more resilient and sustainable health infrastructure, thus improving the quality of health care.

Moses Jn Baptiste, Saint Lucia’s Minister for Health, underscored the importance of knowledge transfer and said, “This event is important as our exchanges will benefit from the experiences and shared knowledge about challenges, reforms on the way and innovations. This event supports a regional Caribbean dialogue to spark regional collaboration and knowledge transfer. Our successes and challenges in the areas of non-communicable diseases, hospital services and health management information systems will be shared. These topics have been prioritized to support investment decisions and policy reforms in the broader Caribbean countries that are embarking on health system reforms.”

Over the last few months, the Korean World Bank Partnership Facility has financed technical assistance to support reform initiatives.

Minister Jn Baptiste said, “Universal health care is an ambitious goal. It provides an avenue for unity, global health financing against poverty and reducing social inequity. It is the hallmark of government’s commitment to improving the well-being of all citizens.”

While in Saint Lucia, the delegates visited the Owen King EU Hospital and Saint Lucia’s performance-based financing facility.