Belize Health System Analysis

A country’s population is its most important resource. Thus, a country requires a healthy population in order for it to function well and meet its goals. According to the Central Bank of Belize Annual report, Belize’s population is approximately 375,900 (2016). Regardless of its small population, Belize encounters many issues including that of its health system. The attempt towards creating a better health system cannot be ignored; however, rural areas such as the Southern districts of the country are still overlooked. Research done on the country’s health system structure, its epidemiological profile and engagement in global initiative advocate for the establishment of health facilities in the southern region of the nation.

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Few researchers from the U.S National Library of Medicine have developed ten key principles for successful health systems Integration (Suter, Oelke, Adair & Armitage, 2009). Among these principles are comprehensive services across the continuum of care, patient focus, information systems and governance structure (2009). Even though the research focused on the Canadian health system, Belize has begun to adopt some of the principles. To demonstrate, Belize’s health system used to operate in a vertical program system but after consultations with various key stakeholders across the health level, the Ministry of Health changed the vertical system into an integrated Health Care system (Ministry of Health & PAHO, 2009). In addition, the Ministry reorganized its services into four health regions; namely, Northern, Central, Western and Southern regions headed by regional health managers (2009). In 2014, the Ministry’s Strategic Plan Committee decided to launch the Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) with foundation on the WHO system thinking approach and it seeks to systematically apply the current knowledge and future investments to generate new ideas to improve the overall health of the country (Belize

This was mainly due to pregnancy, child-bearing and child care in early years of children’s growth (MOH/PAHO, 2009). In most of the rural areas, many of the parents do not take their children on time to take the vaccines. As noted in Doctor Zinkernagel research, vaccines help in the protection against infections; hence, it is particularly important early in life because the immune system is immature at birth (2001). Zinkernagel’s research emphasises in that successful vaccines induce optimal levels of neutralizing antibodies against acutely cytopathic agents. In contrast, long-lasting cell mediated immunity is more difficult to induce through vaccination (2001). Therefore, it is important to consider such health reason especially since, the statistics from 2001-2005 showed that the leading causes of infant mortality rate was conditions originating in the perinatal period (MOH/PAHO, 2009). Besides these infant health issues, one of the significant epidemiological trends in Belize is the increase prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 2, heart disease cardiovascular disease and cancer (MOH/PAHO, 2009). Not to mention that a study by UNICEF in 2004 indicated that about two thousand children have lost one parent because of AIDS. Another disease of major importance is Malaria