The health sector continues to advance with the addition of state-of-the-art institutions and trained personnel to man those institutions with the aim of bettering health care services provided to citizens.
To ensure that this is achieved, Gy$7.2 billion of the Gy$14 billion allocated to the health sector was expended for the first half of 2011.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh
According to the Mid- Year Report presented by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh on Thursday in the National Assembly, the levels of expenditure have aided the acceleration of the implementation of the national health programmes.
To further strengthen the skilled workforce and human resource system within the sector, about Gy$121million has been expended to further enhance the qualifications of health care professionals.
This saw approximately 150 clinical and technical health personnel graduate in key fields for the first half of this year alone.
The individuals have since been deployed to various health institutions countrywide, while an additional 28 clinical coordinators from remote areas and 42 tutors and part-time lecturers benefited from capacity-building workshops to improve their skills.
Moreover, 157 health professionals completed the management development programme, while 14 health science tutors drawn from the three nursing schools completed the health science management programme.
Efforts are moving apace to merge the professional nurses and midwifery curricula into a single curriculum.
Currently, there are over 920 students in training, and the Health Ministry intends to train another 135 professional nurses, 1,790 nursing assistants and 120 clinical and technical personnel to complement the growing demand for quality health care, a GINA release said.
New maternal prenatal strategy and integrated child health strategy 2011- 2015 have been completed, while the healthcare initiative has been extended to 21 health facilities. This is expected to be complemented by the nutrition education sessions conducted at 35 health clinics in Regions Three, Four and Five, benefiting some 7,000 people.
The first half of the year also saw the sector expanding the cervical cancer screening programme (VIA) through its mobile clinics countrywide.
About 1,450 women benefited from VIA (cancer) screening at the 17 locations across the country for this year alone.
Government continues to place emphasis on health facilities across the country, expending over Gy$227 million for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of health facilities in the first half of the year.
This includes the construction of the new 214-bed in- patient facility which is expected to be completed shortly, and the new emergency ward at the Fort Wellington Hospital. Additionally, works are ongoing on the general improvement of the water distribution and electrical systems at the maternity and medical buildings at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
While works to expand the maternity ward at the Georgetown Public Hospital have commenced, a new waste disposal facility will also be installed shortly and will be utilized by all surrounding hospitals.
The design specification for the 150-bed specialty hospital is also being finalised.
