Harvard Medical School, Partners in Health,The Kletjian and Helmsley Foundations co-host side event at Geneva Press Club

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On Wednesday 22 May 2019, Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Non Communical Disease (NCD) and Social Change and the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change in partnership with Partners In Health’s NCD Synergies team, The Kletjian Foundation and the Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, hosted a two-hour side-event during the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

Over 140 people attended the event, including high-level participation from the Ministries of Health of Rwanda and Malawi, WHO, and a vast range of global health funders, academic partners and peer organizations.

Attendees heard from Dr. Gina Agiostradiou, Director of the Type 1 Diabetes Program at the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and Dr. Patrick Ndimubanzi, The Honorable Minister of State for Public Health and Primary Health Care of Rwanda, who both called for decentralized and integrated delivery strategies that encompass the full extent of medical and surgical needs across the health system. Dr. Gene Bukhman, Director of the PIH NCD Synergies Project and the Program in Global NCD and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, drew attention to gaps in prioritizing care for the poorest and most vulnerable in the NCD and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) global agendas. All agreed that in order to provide equitable care to everyone across all conditions, it is essential that the poorest and most vulnerable are prioritized.

Speakers, Panelists, partners and Collaborators at the GeneVa Press club

Speakers, Panelists, partners and Collaborators at the GeneVa Press club

The latter half of the event included a panel session with a wide range of patients, community health workers, clinicians and policy advocates who shared their experiences and presented their recommendations for achieving equitable care, especially regarding access to diagnostics, medicines, and low-cost treatments.

In closing discussions, Dr. Jones Masiye, Deputy Director of Clinical Services at the Ministry of Health in Malawi, recommended to UN and WHO colleagues attending the High Level Meetings on UHC that we must invest in human resources for health and build up this capacity to bring care closer to where people live.

A full livestream of the event is available here.