Seychelles has placed the improvement in the quality of services its population receives as one of the key policy thrusts that will consolidate the achievements of Universal Health Coverage that it has so far attained. To this end, an increased focus on person centred care is one of the strategic thrusts the country is pursuing to facilitate achievement of this goal. Person centred care calls for a complete rethink of the way health and related services are designed, provided and monitored.

A re-pivot of the service delivery process around the person, as opposed to around the disease or intervention is needed to enable acceptable service provision. To facilitate the thinking around how this will be attained, the three national health professionals councils in the country jointly decided to facilitate a symposium on person centred care that would be an opportunity to build consensus within the health stakeholders on how this would be achieved. WHO provided the facilitation of the symposium.

The two day symposium which was held on 15th and 16th July 2016 in Victoria, Seychelles aimed to familiarize health care team with the concepts of patient centred care, and agree on the application of patient centred care mechanisms, taking cognizance of the Seychelles context. The symposium was attended by 180 participants, drawn from the respective health professions, policy makers in health, patient care groups, and media stakeholders. The facilitation was led by Dr. Delanyo Dovlo, Director of Health Systems and Services in AFRO and included Nuria Polanco Toro from WHO/Geneva Service Delivery team, together with two WHO consultants as global experts on person centred care – Angela Coulter from University of Oxford, UK and Susan Frampton from Planetree International Network.

The symposium was opened by the Minister of Health Mrs. Mitcy Larue, who highlighted the need for person centredness in provision of services and attainment of the health goals of the Seychellois people. Minister Larue highlighted the need to understand that the person is a full participant in the process of designing and providing health care, and our approach needs to recognise the fundamental rights of all individuals as well as the social nature of health and the cultural dimensions of care. This understanding, she said, is as important for the policy makers and managers as it is for the professionals engaged in public health and clinical practice.

The WHO Liaison officer (ai), Dr. Humphrey Karamagi, highlighted the role WHO is playing at the regional and global levels to provide guidance and support to countries that are working to make their health services more person centred. He highlighted this is a win-win approach to provision of services, as the providers are better able to achieve the health outcomes they desire and the people’s confidence in services is enriched. Dr Karamagi said appropriate relationships between the care giver and receiver lead to the best possible health outcomes for the country. 

The regional and global focus and thinking around person centred care were shared by Dr. Delanyo Dovlo and Nuria Polanco Toro respectively, with the symposium participants oriented on the global people centred concept and framework and its application in the Africa region. In addition, Dr. Dovlo provided guidance and orientation on the required governance, regulatory and legal mechanisms needed. Deliberations on the conceptualization of person centred care in Seychelles, the role of different health professionals and other stakeholders were deliberated on by the participants. The draft health charter was presented and discussed, as part of the operationalization mechanism. At the end of the symposium, the participants deliberated around how the country needs to move forward in six areas of importance: Required institutional, legal and regulatory arrangements; defining advocacy focus and goals; identification and engagement with stakeholders; roles of different health cadres; roles of clients; and roles of policy/decision makers.

The symposium was closed by the Principal Secretary Dr. Bernard Valentin, who emphasized the determination of the Ministry of Health to put in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure that a much higher degree of person-centered care becomes a reality in Seychelles. Real examples of change shall be visible within a year from now, he committed. At the end of the symposium, participants appreciated the open and frank discussion on the person centred care approach, and were committed to seeing how this can be attained during delivery of the health and related services. The agreed set of actions was jointly owned as the way to take the approach forward in the country. The facilitators were all applauded for effectively guiding this difficult discussion, and the participants received certificates of attendance, and were recognized as change agents towards facilitating movement towards patient centred integrated care in Seychelles. The certificates shall count towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for health workers.

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For more information, please contact:

Doreen Hotive (Mrs), NPO/HIP Officer, Tel: (248) 4224795, Fax: (248) 225754, GPN 37212, Email:  hotived [at] who.int