Seychelles’ public spending on health was 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2011, equivalent to US$439 per capita. In the most recent survey, conducted between 1997 and 2010, there were 151 doctors, and 793 nurses and midwives per 100,000 people. Additionally, 98 per cent of one-year-olds in 2012 were immunised with one dose of measles. The most recent survey, conducted in the period 2000-11, reports that Seychelles has 76 pharmaceutical personnel per 100,000 people. In 2010, 96 per cent of the country’s population had access to adequate sanitation facilities and 97 per cent had access to an improved source of water.
Health care is mainly provided 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 (2009). 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. Highly specialised treatment takes place overseas, with the government providing most of the funding. As there is no local manufacturing in the Seychelles, the country imports all its pharmaceutical requirements. There are no legal provisions for regulating the private sector pharmaceutical market.
The most recent act of parliament relating to mental health in Seychelles is the Mental Health Act (2006/08). There are 1.2 mental health outpatient facilities and 47.3 beds in psychiatric hospitals per 100,000 people (2011).
