US$35,000 health centre to boost services in East La Penitence

The delivery of health care in the East La Penitence area and its environs was given a shot in the arm yesterday with the opening of a US$35,000 health centre which was built through a partnership between the government and the US-based New Horizons Guyana programme.

Protesters outside the health centre yesterday
Protesters outside the health centre yesterday

The opening ceremony was interrupted by some PNCR protestors who waited until President Bharrat Jagdeo arrived to pull out placards and started to chant slogans over allegations of links between his government and drug lord, Roger Khan.

As the placard-bearing protestors, who also targeted Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy, started to chant, the volume of the microphone was turned up and chairperson of the proceedings, Minister within the Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, made attempts to project his voice over the protestors, who numbered about 15 and stood opposite the centre.

President Jagdeo later told reporters that Guyana is a democratic country and the protestors had a right to protest if they so wished.
The president, who seemed unfazed by the protestors, said that he wanted to make a personal appearance at the opening since it is important that “countries like ours” acknowledge support from abroad. He noted also that those who had worked on the health centre had assisted the government in fulfilling its promise of delivering better service to the populace.

“Health care and the delivery of health care to our people is an important role of our national development and it is particularly difficult to deliver on these objectives, especially when a country like ours is scarce of financial resources, we have less resources than we have needs so any assistance that we receive would be very useful,” the president said.

He added that about 85% of health care in Guyana is provided in the public sector which is all free and according to him in a small developing country like Guyana where the developmental needs are great “…it puts a huge strain on the ability of everyone to deliver quality health care.”

Jagdeo  said too that as part of his government’s focus on primary health care they will build a network of medical institutions across the country and all would have a minimum quality, beginning  with the ten new hospitals being built and the improvement of existing ones.

To staff these institutions, the president said that there is an aggressive training programme. “We plan to train over 2,000 nurses in four years. That is way beyond our national needs but we have migration… so we have to do that out of necessity.”
Further, many doctors have been trained and are being trained to staff the hospitals.

Partnerships
Moving on to another issue, the Head of State said that what is more important than building new buildings is partnerships.
“If we are going to change this hemisphere, if we are going to realise the full potential of Latin America and the Caribbean, if we are going to approve the relationship of Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States of America, we have to do so on the basis of a new understanding and this new understanding has to be of mutual respect, assistance and partnerships,” the president said.

He noted that the region has stark poverty and social ills lend themselves to disillusionment among the populace at large in many countries. And for him, he noted,  it has nothing to do with “ideology but service to my people” and so  he would accept assistance from wherever it comes, whether it is from Cuba or the US.
He said Guyana has good relationships with both countries but he hopes that the relationship between Cuba and the US would improve.

In her brief remarks, Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy, Karen Williams said that the health centre and other facilities were built through the partnership with the US programme and a number of local entities and officials. She said it was part of the continued commitment of the US to Guyana and not a one-time project.

The centre, which is located at Lot 1 Mayor and City Council Reserve, Vlissengen Road, is expected to provide services in the medical field, including dentistry and optometry.

Dr Ramsaran said that all the staff required for the centre had been identified and these include three newly-trained doctors who recently returned from Cuba.
The New Horizon programme included several other projects to the tune of US$9M and these include the rehabilitation of a school at Timehri and the construction of the Bel Air Nursery School. This is the third mission in Guyana under the programme.

Meanwhile, the protestors waited until President Jagdeo had left before downing their placards.
In recent times the PNCR and its supporters have been upping the ante in their protest exercises following the testimony in the US trial of Robert Simels which among other things linked the government to confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan and more specifically Dr Ramsammy as having personal contact with Khan. Both the government and Ramsammy have repeatedly denied such links.