Solomons struggling to achieve universal health coverage

4:37 pm on 9 May 2019

The Solomon Islands health ministry says it's struggling to achieve universal health coverage.

The outpatients area at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

Honiara hospital Photo: RNZ/Pacific Koroi Hawkins

Doctors and administrators from across the country have gathered in Honiara to try and find solutions to the country's significant health challenges.

The World Health Organisation ranks Solomon Islands among the countries in the region with the lowest essential health services coverage.

A health ministry official, Ivan Ghemu, said achieving coverage across the country is proving difficult.

"A lot of our programmes, divisions, even our provinces we were like silos. We were hardly talking to each other. So sometimes in our annual operation plan, our planning and especially when we translate to AOP we would duplicate.

"So these are the things that over the years and for the last couple of years we have been trying to work on them. Telling everybody come together we need to work on these, let us approach all of our indicators holistically."

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