Health plan should be realistic, specific

I COMMEND editors of both daily newspapers for continuing to highlight the urgent need for the Government to address issues with cancer in the country, especially the plight of childhood or paediatric cancers as reported this week.
This has come at a time when the Health Department is trying to complete and launch the next 10 years’ National Health Plan 2021-2020.
As a former health manager and a concerned citizen, I hope this plan will work because past plans have been too broad, unrealistic and a huge budget wasted for nothing because only 10 per cent of the key result areas outcomes have been achieved over the last 10 years.
I know the Health Department has never had accurate data to develop its past plans and policies and this has not improved up to now because it has lost its focus in the last 10 years.
However, from experience and simple observation, we know that cancer is a big problem in the country with more than 10,000 deaths annually and has to be addressed.
I call on the Government to demand the Health Department to produce a simple, realistic and specific health plan based on our current disease burden instead of verbiage.
This means prioritising the allocation of resources based on the most common illness and most common causes of death to the least common.

Peter K. Bire, ML
Planning for Planners