After several months of uncertainty as to when they would be employed, the 92 Cuban-trained doctors who completed their final year internship and graduated in August have finally seen a development in their case.
The batch of doctors had arrived in Guyana last year August after they had completed their five-year programme and were slated to continue the final internship year in Guyana. After they had completed the final year, a graduation was held for them and they were informed by the Public Service Ministry, who was initially in charge of them, that the Ministry of Public Health would take them over. After several months of being pushed around by the Ministry of Public Health and receiving vague responses they were connected to the Medical Council of Guyana where they were supposed to complete a registration process. After figuring out the confusing process of registration they were left in limbo again and waited until they were recently contacted.
According to one of the doctors, the batch was contacted on Friday and informed by someone from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) that they have to sign their contracts today. “Some of us were told to be at GPHC for 8:30AM while others were told 1:30PM and we have to walk with all our documents and what’s not,” he said. The doctor pointed out that while they were unemployed for two months and weren’t being paid, one of the batch mates enquired about compensation given since “people need to buy working clothes and money for passage to get to work”. They were met with vague responses and referred to the Ministry of Health. While they were unable to enquire further the doctor said, “I am optimistic though. I think they will give us some compensation and we are looking forward to start out because from what I was hearing most of the departments [at GPHC] are understaffed and the doctors that are currently there are working around the clock.”
