The Eastern Suburb Community Health Centre was inaugurated at St François Xavier, in Port-Louis, on 21 June, by the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management, Dr Mohammad Anwar Husnoo, in the presence of the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, Members of Parliament, and other dignitaries.
The newly constructed community health centre, to the tune of around Rs 36 million, will provide several services. These include: general consultation, antenatal clinic, family planning, well baby clinic, diabetologist clinic, dental clinic, and health education and counselling.
In his address, Dr Husnoo highlighted that the health of the population remained the topmost priority of Government. “In a bid to provide better health care facilities and improve health care access, Government has constructed several mediclinics and area health centres, and has undertaken major infrastructural works in the health care sector,” he emphasised.
The Vice-Prime Minister indicated that diseases had evolved over time and that many persons were now suffering from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, and hypertension, thereby requiring regular health checks. He stated that the inhabitants of St François Xavier and the neighbourhood would now benefit from several health care facilities near their residence.
Moreover, Dr Husnoo encouraged the population to adopt a sports culture and to go for a walk for at least ten minutes per day. He mentioned the construction of several facilities in the region of Port Louis to cater for social and sports activities for the welfare of the citizens.
For his part, the Health Minister indicated that the project, which started in 2017 but got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was in line with Government vision to provide advanced health care services to the people in their vicinity. “Government will continue to renovate and built new health infrastructures to better respond to current and new challenges and the growing ageing population,” he said.
According to Dr Jagutpal, health care centres were built with the objective of providing people with closer and easier access to health care facilities. “These centres have proven to be more efficient and to cater to a larger segment of the population,” he pointed out.
