Important strides made in improving healthcare delivery

There have been tremendous strides made in Guyana’s health sector, and the administration’s plan to build a specialty hospital in the country will further boost its capacity to provide quality health care to the citizenry.

President Bharrat Jagdeo recently returned from a visit to India, where he was successful in obtaining a line of credit for the construction of a hospital in Guyana. At a recent press conference hosted by the head of state, he announced that construction of the specialty hospital will commence by year end, and within a maximum of two years, any surgery for which Guyanese would normally travel to North America and other countries will be done locally at a fraction of the cost, at the same time not compromising quality. It is expected that the specialty hospital will be providing services including cardio-related and cosmetic surgeries and organ transplants.

This is indeed good news, since it means that persons seeking medical attention will not face that additional burden of trying to raise huge sums of money, which in most cases is beyond the reach of ordinary Guyanese. This also means that the government would not have to fork out finances from its coffers to assist patients to go overseas for medical treatment as it is currently doing.

The Indian government was approached sometime ago when it was agreed that a line of credit will be used for the construction of the hospital. It is expected that a partner from India will be chosen to manage the facility until such time that locals can take over. India has, over the years established itself as one of the pioneers in health care, as many persons from even developed countries such as North America travel there through medical tourism to seek medical treatment because of the competitive nature of such services in that country. Hence it is important for our country to maintain and strengthen relations with India since we would be able to learn from their experiences in various fields, especially as it relates to providing tertiary health care.

The Guyana government has been making tremendous efforts over the years, pumping billions of dollars into improving health care delivery. In 2010 for instance, the country’s health sector got Gy$13.3billion of the country’s national budget, while in 2011 the health sector was allocated some Gy$14billion.

This new specialty hospital to be constructed is in addition to the four diagnostic and treatment centers at Leonora, Suddie, Diamond and Mahaicony, the Ophthalmology hospital in Port Mourant, and a modern hospital which was built recently in Linden, among others.

Additionally, there is a large number of students currently pursuing studies in medicine in Cuba, along with the training of nurses and medex locally, all with the prevailing objective of improving the accessibility and quality of primary health care to Guyanese citizens. This is in addition to hundreds of qualified doctors who have already returned from Cuba and are serving in various hospitals across the country.

However, even though remarkable progress has been made, there still remains a gap in terms of the country’s capacity to provide good quality tertiary health care to Guyanese citizens, and while there have been some efforts in bridging this gap, there are still challenges to be overcome. For example, treating patients with kidney-related problems has proven to be a challenge for the administration. Dialysis treatment is very costly, and even though the government provides assistance to patients, it is still too expensive and out of the reach of the ordinary man who may require such treatment.

Finally, we have recognised the important strides being made in providing quality health care in Guyana. And from all indications, Guyana is very much on target in terms of achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically as those relate to the area of health, since the country has had great successes in reducing the mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and by extension, reducing the rate of child mortality.