Health Ministry eyes collaboration with DC-based hospital

Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran yesterday met a team of doctors from the George Washington University Hospital in the United States, with which the ministry hopes to establish a relationship that will see improved clinical care and health education in the country.

“It’s a scoping visit. They are here to see what we have and how they can mesh with us,” Ramsaran said yesterday at a press conference at the Ministry of Health.

He highlighted several areas that ministry hopes to develop and revolutionise. These ideas were presented to the team, which expressed excitement. The minister said he hopes the partnership with the Washington DC-based George Washington Hospital will lead to an improvement in clinical care and faster emergency response in local hospitals. He said it is his hope that the emergency care unit in the Georgetown Public Hospital be strengthened. At present, the hospital is under strain to provide medical care for most of the 250,000 Guyanese who inhabit the coastland.

He said the ministry is looking to reduce the rate of child mortality, and a number of critical diseases that plague the country. He said that they are also aiming at improving life expectancy for both men and women and also work at improving the capacity of the governance and regulation in the health sector.  “We have built hospitals on the borders. We have 1,000 trained nurses and 500 baby doctors emerging in the division. Our aim is to build the health sector in this country. And it takes 50 per cent brainpower and 50 per cent infrastructure. We have both,” the minister said.

He lauded the USA for faithfully supporting Guyana’s health care sector, adding that it is his desire for the relationship between the Ministry of Health and the George Washington Hospital to be dynamic and purposeful.