Bahrain's Health Agenda - Health Improvement Strategy.

This Health Improvement Strategy is a nationwide sectoral document produced in conjunction with the healthcare reform project being implemented by the Ministry of Health. The reform focuses among other things focuses on the increase in non-communicable diseases due to unhealthy lifestyles, the continually rising cost and expenditure of health care delivery as well as the shortage in some specialties of human resources for health. The key role of the Ministry of Health is (i) to work towards tackling these challenges and ensure that resources are optimally utilized; (ii) to protect and enhance the health of the population; (iii) to achieve an informed, integrated, regulated, sustainable, equitable, and affordable health system to ensure the availability of high-quality services to all; (iv) to ensure that resources are used efficiently and effectively for high standard care. The Health Agenda is directly linked to the objectives of the Economic Vision 2030 and the National Economic Strategy (NES). The main actions required for improvement are (i) develop National Action Plan to encourage healthy lifestyles, covering a number of programs for the coming 15 year for the purpose of (1) to reduce the current prevalence of obesity; (2) to reduce the prevalence of sedentary lifestyle; (3) to reduce the prevalence of nicotine consumption; (4) to reduce intake of salt-containing foods to less than 5 grams daily by 30%; (5) prohibit completely of partially hydrogenated oil in food production; (6) to increase the % of people consuming fruit and vegetables to 3-5 intakes everyday; (ii) introduce healthy diet programs in coordination with all sectors in order to increase the percentage of people consuming fruits and vegetable more than once a day; (iii) expand dental promotion program; (iv) strengthen the health promotion programs at schools and work places.
The document suggests to improve the Health agenda through (1) health promotion and prevention achieved by (i) focusing on health screening programs and the development and enforcement of public policies to encourage healthy lifestyles; (ii) strengthening the primary healthcare system to raise awareness of warning signs of NCDs to health professionals and the general public, including the development of effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; (iii) establishing and strengthening national policies and plans for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCD); (iii) promoting healthy lifestyle; (iv) enhancing protection against communicable diseases and newly emerging diseases; (2) integrating services throughout the health system, both within the Ministry of Health and between the Ministry of Health and other government institutions, and treating patients in a more holistic manner through well-developed policies and protocols which encourage, wherever appropriate, patient treatment at facilities other than hospitals; (3) putting quality first; (4) ensuring access for all to healthcare services; (5) enhancing MOH’s role in policy making and governance; (6) promoting health service sustainability with particular reference to high costs of healthcare by increasing and diversifying the sources of funding and improving both financial resource utilization and the Ministry of Health’s infrastructure.