Agreement to strengthen and expand primary care in Aruba.
ORANJESTAD - Recently, the Minister of Tourism and Public Health, Mr. Dangui Oduber, together with AZV, HAVA, and Wit Gele Kruis (WGK), signed an agreement to strengthen primary care with more "Practice Supporting Assistance" (POH) to support general practitioners in caring for their patients.
This expansion will improve the accessibility of general practitioners and, over time, translate into reduced need for specialists.
Last year, in June 2023, a healthcare agreement was signed where all healthcare parties came together and signed an agreement that determined the direction and future of medical care in Aruba. One of the key topics in this agreement was the strengthening of primary care and formulation of the objectives for the period 2024-2027:
1. Increase the number of general practitioners and reduce the number of insured general practitioners;
2. Create more slots for the training of general practitioners at Imsan; general practitioner training;
3. Expand the number of POH and offer full training;
4. Invest in training for general practitioners' assistants.
The POH training will be financed for the current 27 POHs with the modules Care for the Elderly and Health Promotion in this agreement. Previously, there were modules for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, the number of POH will be expanded by another 10, bringing the total number of POHs to 38, and by 2027, the goal is for each general practitioner to have 0.7 FTE of POH. The POH's work coordination will also be expanded with an additional coordinator, and reporting on the activities of the POH will be improved.
The government thanks the professional POH team, AZV, HAVA, and WGK, not forgetting everyone who made this agreement possible. The vision of the Ministry of Public Health is to improve the quality of care and service. Investments in healthcare are necessary to ensure that AZV funds remain sustainable with the same comprehensive insurance package our insured.
