The Health Ministry is set to enhance its resources to bolster community-based vaccination outreach, aiming to reach unvaccinated children wherever they may be. This initiative is part of a broader strategy encompassed in the $143.2 billion budget allocated to the Ministry of Health for 2025. Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, elaborated on this during the recent debate on budget estimates.

This year’s budget includes an additional $4 million designated for increased vaccination outreach throughout the country, focusing on areas with the highest need. Minister Anthony emphasized, “We want to meet the children, what we call the last mile, to make sure that they’re getting their vaccine and so forth. So very often we would empower the community health workers or nurses… so that they can go out, call these people, make sure they’re home, reach out to them to ensure that we can find them and bring them into the programme and ensure they get their vaccines.”

This enhanced investment in childhood vaccination is part of a broader array of measures aimed at improving health services for children and other vulnerable groups. In the 2024 budget, initiatives included a $1.8 billion eye-testing and spectacles program, which provided financial assistance for eye tests and spectacles to over 205,000 school children. Each child was eligible for a $2,000 voucher for eye tests and an additional $15,000 for purchasing spectacles, reflecting a comprehensive approach to healthcare.

In 2023, the Ministry launched the Comprehensive Child and Youth Health Programme (CYHP), which offered oral health, hearing, and vision screenings for children in nursery and primary schools. This initiative, aimed at enhancing the health of school children aged 5-17, is a collaborative effort between the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Education.