MINISTER of Health Dr Christopher Tufton yesterday brought a new approach to how the sectoral debate is done in Parliament.

Instead of giving a detailed speech on the happening’s within the health sector, Dr Tufton gave a brief overview of each initiative and project and provided two published books — the

Ministry of Health Highlights of Key Initiatives 2016-2017 and

Vitals, a quarterly report of the ministry that is expected to provide a greater level of transparency to media and other stakeholders.“In the interests of transparent and accountable governance, the ministry has developed a document which will be published quarterly, called

Vitals, which will provide important data to the public on the performance of the sector. I am happy to table the first publication here today,” Dr Tufton said during his presentation yesterday.He said he is hoping the document will provide information to those groups or individuals who require it, and importantly, also act as a tool of performance accountability for the individuals and processes responsible for the delivery of public health.“I encourage my colleagues, the media and other stakeholders to use this publication to get important vital statistics on public health and to use this as a basis to satisfy any curiosity they may have, but also to further probe any issues they think may need further analysis. Mr Speaker, public health is everybody’s business, whether good news or bad news, we should never give the impression that we have anything to hide,” the health minister said.Issues highlighted in this publication of

Vitals include vaccination coverage; health facility, health centre and hospital utilisation; diagnostic services; births, stillbirths and neonatal deaths; deaths occurring in Government hospitals; a hospital summary matrix; notifiable diseases or events; Zika update and complaints.With regards to the

Ministry of Health Highlights of Key Initiatives 2016-2017, the publication is divided into six chapters, each carrying sub topics that delve into patient care experience with the public health system, strengthening health systems, responding to non-communicable disease threat, combating communicable illnesses, protecting the health of mothers and children and rehabilitating critical health infrastructure.It also covers issues of waiting time, health financing, Jamaica Moves, Mental Health and Homelessness, Zika virus response, reducing maternal and child mortality, the infrastructure issue at Cornwall Regional Hospital and the Adopt A Clinic programme.