In his first address as President of the 76th edition of the World Health Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne called on health leaders to come together and make the necessary changes so that all peoples have the same access to developments in the field of health and in the field of pharmaceuticals, regardless of the country or continent in which they live.
He recalled that the principle of universal health care for all is one of the foundations of the work of the World Health Organization and therefore, although policy in the field of health is normally a national competence, it is d -the duty of every leader to see that no one falls behind.
“A main reason for the imbalance in the level of health care offered between regions of the world is the unequal access to good quality and innovative medicines. The present medicine distribution system is failing millions of citizens and therefore it should be of interest to all leaders to find a solution,” repeated Health Minister Fearne.
The Deputy Prime Minister brought an example with COVID-19, which showed the world that diseases do not limit themselves to geographical boundaries and that it is when the world unites and pulls together that medical challenges are overcome. He therefore called for other challenges in the field of health to be addressed in the same united way, such as the resistance to anti-microbials, which is another cause that the Deputy Prime Minister constantly stresses on in international forums.
Minister Fearne closed his first message as President of the Assembly on a positive note, where he reminded the 194 leaders present that as active members of the WHO, there is much that one region can learn from another, both from the similarities but much more than the differences, and therefore he claimed that he is confident that the future of the organization and its citizens is a prosperous one.
Photos: ODPM-MFH
