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| Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Joy St. John |
When the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) meets on January 21, chaired by Barbados’ Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Joy St. John, one of the agenda items will be the improvement of regional capacity to implement international health regulations over the next two years.
In an interview with the Barbados Government Information Service, Dr. St. John stated that the CARICOM CMOs made the determination at their annual meeting in April 2012, that this would be done through a CARICOM group project.??
"Since then we have already had a workshop facilitated by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Jamaica where we produced draft action plans to improve our capacity for dealing with radio nuclear events. Then, in September 2012, PAHO worked with CARICOM countries on the disaster preparedness aspects for radiation emergencies.?? So, already, we have been rolling out this package of capacity building in CARICOM," she explained.
Dr. St John noted that as a result of the work of the Environmental Protection Department, Barbados had a "good framework" for regulation of chemical events.?? "The Hazmat team of the Fire Service provides response to chemical events. Presently, we are working with a multi-sectoral committee to improve the infrastructure for radiological events," she added.??????
Before the EB Meeting, the CMO will attend the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee (PBAC), a sub-committee of the EB, from January 17 to 18, which will address options for improving the transparency, predictability and flexibility of WHO’s financing and review the issues raised by discussions in regional committees on the draft general programme of work and the proposed programme budget 2014-2015. ??
The EB meeting is also expected to address the report of the PBAC; WHO reform; the Draft Comprehensive Global Monitoring Framework and targets for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, NULL, NULL, 0); the Draft Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs (2013-2020, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, NULL, NULL, 0); the Draft Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan (2013-2020, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, NULL, NULL, 0); monitoring the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals; the Global Vaccine Action Plan and the Financing and Social Protection of Health in Member States (Universal Health).