President Danilo Medina received the visit of Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Panamerican Health Organization, at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday, 21 February 2018. Etienne is on a weeklong visit from 19-23 February to hold meetings with authorities in the country to analyze achievements and challenges in health.
PAHO has said that one of the objectives of the trip is to discuss the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Central American Integration System (SICA) that the Dominican Republic is holding during the first six months of 2018. Other topics on the PAHO agenda are road safety, maternal and neonatal mortality.
Etienne held meetings with Public Health Minister Altagracia Guzmán Marcelino and the new director of the National Health Service Chanel Rosa Chupani as well as the Superintendent of Health and Labor Risks, Pedro Luis Castellanos, and the director of the governmental health provider Senasa, also under the new leadership of Mercedes Rodriguez Silver.
The PAHO has said topics of interest include the status of general public health in the Dominican Republic and to strengthen opportunities the organization’s technical cooperation with the country. Finally, the mission proposes to assess advances and challenges of the National Health Service (SNS) in terms of broad access to universal health care.
Also on Etienne’s agenda are meetings with the Minister of the Presidency, Gustavo Montalvo, and the Deputy Minister of Consular and Migratory Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, among other officials.
The Dominican Presidency reported that Etienne committed PAHO support for the Ciudad Sanitaria Luis Eduardo Aybar, with 152,000 square meters of construction in 12 buildings with 800 beds, under construction by the Medina government to strengthen public health service.
Etienne is also scheduled to visit the facilities of the National Emergency and Safety System 911 and the Operations Center in Objectively Systematized Medical Simulation (COSMOS), at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University.
The visit is part of a meeting of managers of the PAHO sub-region of Central America, Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
This will be Dr. Etienne’s third visit to the DR. In 2013, she participated in the XII Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in 2016 she led a meeting with the directors of the international cooperation offices of the ministries of health of the region of the Americas.
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PAHO
Presidencia
22 February 2018
