Find Health and Medical expertise in Seychelles

Health care is provided mainly by the Seychelles government. The country has a three-tier health care system. A youth health centre and 16 district health centres located throughout the country provide primary level care. There is one central referral hospital at the tertiary level, Seychelles Hospital, and five hospitals (including a mental and a rehabilitative hospital) at the secondary level. There are also 26 private medical, dental and optometry clinics offering primary health care, referring patients to government-run secondary and tertiary care services when required. Highly specialised treatment takes place overseas, with the government providing most of the funding (at a total cost of US$1.53 million in 2013). As there is no local manufacturing in the Seychelles, the country’s pharmaceutical requirements are met entirely by imports. There are no legal provisions for regulating the private-sector pharmaceutical market.

The country’s Health Strategic Framework 2006–16 is based on the principles of the ‘right to health care, health for all and health by all’, as set out in the Constitution.

The 2013 MDG progress report for Seychelles highlighted the need for more inclusive medical and health service provision for mothers and children, including widespread improvements in antenatal, delivery and postnatal services, with the aim of raising health care to international standards.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Seychelles accounted for an estimated 74% of all mortality in 2008. The most prevalent NCDs in Seychelles are cardiovascular diseases, which caused 32% of the total deaths across all age groups in 2008. Cancer, non-communicable variants of respiratory diseases and diabetes contributed 20%, 4% and 2% to total mortality, respectively (2008). Communicable diseases along with maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions in Seychelles accounted for an estimated 19% of all mortality in 2008. A government paper on HIV/AIDS reported a cumulative 578 HIV cases (261 of which resulted in death) in the period 1987–2013. Seychelles is a non-endemic country for malaria. The estimated incidence of tuberculosis (TB) showed an overall decrease in the period 1990–2013, with significant fluctuation throughout this period, while the estimated mortality (when mortality data excludes cases comorbid with HIV) for TB has fluctuated, but remained overall unchanged.

Government expenditure

In 2013 government expenditure on health was 3.7% of GDP. In the most recent survey, conducted between 1997 and 2010, there were 151 doctors, and 793 nurses and midwives per 100,000 people. Additionally, in 2012, 97% of one-year-olds were immunised with a dose of measles and in 2009, 99% of all births were attended by a qualified health attendant. The most recent survey, conducted in the period 2000–11, reports that Seychelles has 76 pharmaceutical personnel per 100,000 people. In 2014, 96% of the country’s population had access to adequate sanitation facilities and 98% had access to an improved source of water.

Just 7% of health care in Seychelles was paid for by patients or funded by other non-governmental entities – such as private insurers, charities or employers – in 2012. Total health expenditure constituted 4.7% of GDP in 2012, of which 93% (US$486 per capita) was covered by the government.

Seychelles was not an original signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, but acceded to it in 1984 and has written the covenant into law. It includes ‘the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’. The covenant commits signees to providing healthy and hygienic environmental conditions, controlling epidemic diseases, improving child health and facilitating access to health services without discrimination.