The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) has this morning (21 Oct) commenced its two (2) days National Planning and Budgeting for 2022 Workshop with the theme; Translating Plans into Actions to Achieve better results, in Honiara.
The event gathered over 60 participants, which includes MHMS Senior Executive Management, Provincial Health Directors and team members, Heads of Departments and Programs, Donors and Development Partners.
Opening the workshop, Permanent Secretary Mrs. Pauline McNeil highlighted the importance of the workshop and important considerations when planning and budgeting for 2022.
“The annual operation plan touches the heart of the conduct of our business in the Ministry. This plan and budget we will put together in this workshop will chart how we will be doing our business come 2022. Therefore, it is important that as we plan, we think of innovative and creative ways on how we can effectively and efficiently use our limited resources, more especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic, develop realistic and achievable budgets and activities to deliver necessary health services for our people”.
Mrs McNeil also used the opportunity to issue stern call for renewed passion, team- work, leading with fervour to deliver for the people.
“We must ask ourselves, do we have the same level of passion and pride for the work that we do? Working hard for something we do not care about will only lead to stress. Let us be passionate about our work and hard work will eventually fall in place. Let’s continue to uphold team spirit we are a team and team work itself has significantly contributed towards protecting our people against COVID-19 to date. Let us do the same across all our programmes, projects and activities”,
“I also wish to thank all our leaders in your various provinces, sectors and departments for great leadership demonstrated to date. Continue to lead with fervour and not with fear, though challenged with additional responsibilities, processes and systems including relationships with staff. All these challenges can be overcome once we are all work together”, stated Mrs. McNeil.
“2020 and 2021 have been challenging indeed like no others due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our internal systems, processes and capacities to deliver were challenged and health services disrupted. Implementation of our annual operations 2019 to 2021 affected and COVID-19 will continue to affect future budgets as we continue to face declining domestic revenues, and declining support from donors who are also affected by COVID-19, therefore the call for doing things differently and more strategically”, explained Mrs. McNeil.
She concluded by cautioning for alertness to challenges that 2022 will bring and encouraged everyone that in order to come out of 2022 successfully is to remain focused, committed and dedicated on implementation of the plan for 2022 to achieve better health outcomes for the people.
While the workshop strives to have in place a completed draft of the AOP submitted in time, in doing so will also ensure shared understanding and commitment to the strategic intentions needed to achieve the core indicator as stipulated in the MHMS National Health Strategic Plan 2016-2021 with planning and budgeting for 2022 done in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. This also includes improved understanding of national programmes and provinces of their different roles and responsibilities when integrating and coordinating with each other at the national and provincial level.
-MHMS Press