Selfish to seek healthcare for smoking and drinking ailments

by Linda Straker

• Responsibility of every individual to ensure your personal wealth is your health
• Revitalisation initiative launched at recently commissioned St John polyclinic
• Primary Health Care or PHC entails 3 inter-related and synergistic components

Delivering remarks at the launch of the Primary Healthcare Revitalisation Initiative, Health Minister Jonathan LaCrette described people who seek medical care for ailments caused by drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and engaging in promiscuous sex, as “a little bit sort of selfish” because they did not ensure that their personal wealth was their health.

“Even though politicians, healthcare policymakers and administrators, etc., are part and part responsible for the institutional and governmental structure that relates to the kind and quality of healthcare services that is meted out to the individuals who need it the most, there is also the individual responsibility on every individual citizen to ensure that your personal wealth is your health,” he said.

Grenada launched its revitalisation initiative at the recently commissioned St John polyclinic.

“You cannot decide to sit for an entire week and smoke…and expect the health sector to take up that burden of sickness after. You cannot decide that you just going to drink all you so desire whole day, whole night and expect the health sector to take up that burden thereafter,” LaCrette said.

“You just cannot decide that you are going to be wildly promiscuous and expect the health sector at the end of the day to stand the consequences for your promiscuity as it pertains to STIs and STDs. It is a little bit sort of selfish,” he told the ceremony, which comprised senior health officials.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Primary Health Care or PHC entails 3 inter-related and synergistic components, including comprehensive integrated health services that embrace primary care as well as public health goods and functions as central pieces; multi-sectoral policies and actions to address the upstream and wider determinants of health; and engaging and empowering individuals, families, and communities for increased social participation and enhanced self-care and self-reliance in health.