Human resources remain biggest challenge for Seychelles’ health services in COVID fight

A national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 led to over 80 percent of the population vaccinated with the first dose- one of the highest rates in the world (Joe Laurence, Seychelles News Agency)

(Seychelles News Agency) - Limited human resources remain the main challenge the Seychelles' health ministry faces in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a high official at the Public Health Authority said on Monday.

Meggy Louange, the director general at the authority, outlined this challenge to the press at the start of a 3-day Intra-Action Review of the National COVID-19 Response.

"One of our biggest challenges remains our limited human resources and as such our staff has to multitask. We need to look closely at our health workforce to see how we can manage better. Another big challenge is related to the fact that this is the first time that the world faces such a pandemic and as such all countries were learning on the go. We saw ourselves responding to something that we are not sure of and we had to rely on information coming from outside," said Louange.

Being carried out by the Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Intra-Action Review will allow participants to carry out a qualitative review of actions undertaken so far to respond to an ongoing emergency as a means of identifying lessons, gaps, and best practices to improve the response plan.

During plenary sessions happening between September 5 to September 7, participants will be provided an opportunity to share experiences and collectively analyse the ongoing in-country COVID-19 response by identifying challenges and best practices.

"Once we have completed the 3-day exercise, we expect to come up with an action plan based on all the thematic areas, such as port of entry, coordination, and infection control among others," said Louange.

The principal secretary for health, Bernard Valentin, expressed in his opening remark that "the work that we do here must not end with just another good report and another set of good recommendations."

"A robust implementable change-oriented action plan must follow. We must attach as much importance to that plan and its implementation as we do anything else. We can always do better and must always seek to do better," said Valentin.

This is the second time that Seychelles carries out an Intra-Action Review, and it is a process that will be undertaken each year as long as the pandemic continues to affect the world.