The health system has been intact during the eighteen years of independence and has not experienced pronounced changes from the colonial model, despite some small adjustments. The Ministry of Health and Social Improvement is the governmental entity responsible for the provision of public health services. The Ministry’s steering role is reflected in the areas of regulation and financing of the institutions responsible for health care in the country. There are no other governmental bureaucracies at the intermediate or local levels, meaning that all health services depend on the central level. The degree of decentralization at different levels of care is limited. Consequently, all normative decisions, as well as those related to human and finncial resources, are taken at the central level.


 Health System Profile of Antigua y Barbuda


The profile was prepared by a group of six professionals and national policy decision makers from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Education and the PAHO/WHO Caribbean Program Coordination in Barbados. Technical coordination of the national group was the responsibility of the Ministry of Health of Antigua and Barbuda and the PAHO/WHO Caribbean Program Coordination in Barbados. Final review, edition, and translation are the responsibility of the Health Systems and Policies Unit, PAHO/WHO, Washington, DC.

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Antigua and Barbuda Country Profile - Health in the Americas, 2007
Link to PAHO/WHO Caribbean Program Coordination & Eastern Caribbean Countries Office