| Siti Hajar |
TO BETTER facilitate its services, the Ministry of Health (MoH) recently announced plans to consolidate its facilities at the Berakas Health Centre and bring about even further improvements for the community within the centre’s catchment area.
The Weekend Bulletin was informed that the move is aligned with the ministry’s three strategic priorities of its vision, ‘Towards a Healthy Nation’, to enhance the quality of service delivery as well as to prevent and control non-communicable diseases.
In his budget speech recently delivered during the Legislative Council Meeting, Dato Paduka Dr Awang Haji Zulkarnain bin Haji Hanafi, Minister of Health, had said that these strategies, among others, include consolidation and alignment of health services by way of adding value to its role and responsibilities in the country for its clients and the public while at the same time reducing wastage.
Health centres in the country typically provide primary healthcare services based on the objective to provide universal health access for the entire population as per the Sustainable Development Goals of the World Health Organization and the United Nations, both of which Brunei are members of.
Primary Health Centres (PHC) were introduced to provide holistic and comprehensive health services including the promotion of healthy lifestyles, detecting diseases early in order to prevent complications as well as managing chronic illnesses.
Aimed at decentralising PHC services away from hospitals in a move that was initiated in the year 2000, health services in the last 15 years have been more accessible to the public with a range of services under one roof for the community’s convenience.
There are currently 16 health centres in the Sultanate with the most health centres located in Brunei-Muara and four each in Tutong and Belait districts.
Some of the existing health centres were not designed for functionality with a few operating out of residential government apartments transformed into clinics but the future will see the incorporation of purpose-built healthcare centres specifically to address this particular issue on top of enhancing the ministry’s health services.
As part of this process, residents living in Mukim Berakas ‘A’ and Berakas ‘B’ can look forward to the latest in the ministry’s arsenal to achieve its 2035 health objective with strategic themes focussed towards achieving significant and measurable improvements of the people’s lives.
This new facility that has already caught the attention of residents with its striking facade will be open to the public on May 16, with the ministry recently initiating a social media campaign to socialise the new addition and more details are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
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