Health officials seek to update legislation

Next door to the anti-stigma and discrimination workshop, public health officials were hard at work discussing, among other things, the fact that Belize’s present Health Act does not address the impact of HIV/AIDS. Revamping outdated legislation is just one of the objectives of today’s workshop as the Ministry of Health continues on its ambitious plan of setting up a legal framework establishing the boundaries of government responsibility. According to Director of Health Services Dr. Errol Vanzie, health legislation is presently spread over six different acts, the largest being the Public Health and the Medical Institution Acts. This morning Vanzie told us that despite the number of medical laws, there are major gaps, hence the need for a comprehensive General Health Act that will grow with the emerging needs of the country.

Dr. Errol Vanzie, Director of Health Services
“The General Health Act will establish the parameters, the area of responsibility of health and the existing acts will fall within the general act, but at the same time it will set the development of new acts to address all areas of need within the health sector.”

“The output of this process, which we hope will end somewhere around February 2006 will be a document known as the General Health Act. After that, within the context of that General Health Act we are going to review and update the existing acts and establish an agenda for the development of new pieces of legislation.”

Based on the success of the General Health Act’s implementation, it is anticipated that other sectors in government will embark on similar initiatives.