A Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) was on Friday signed between the Ministry of Health and Northwell Health of the US for improvements here.
The MoU which also included an agreement between the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the University of Guyana was signed during a ceremony at the Cara Lodge Hotel.
The agreement which has been in the works for about two years was officially signed after a 17-member team from Northwell Health which is based in New York, USA, visited Guyana.
According to GPHC Chief Executive Officer (Ag), Robbie Rambarran, the engagement during the week of the team being in Guyana has been fruitful. He mentioned that talks started in 2019 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic there were some setbacks in getting everything done.
Director of Global Health for Northwell, Dr Eric Ciao-Pena during the ceremony stated that at the beginning of the week’s engagement, the team indicated their commitment to listen and understand what the needs of the country’s healthcare system were and how they could assist.
“We didn’t really know what to expect at the beginning or what level of cooperation, what level of honesty we would have and I can speak for every member of my team that we were truly humbled and honoured with the way that you explained what the needs were, explained what the situation was and how best we can help,” Dr Ciao-Pena was quoted as saying.
It was noted that while Guyana is one of three countries included in Northwell’s Global Health programme, it is the largest and most substantive agreement that the healthcare provider has signed to date. Ciao-Pena stated that Guyana represents the company’s flagship global health endeavour and that it is going to be the one where the most resources will be committed to over the five years of the agreement.
The company will essentially be supporting education training, human resource capacity building and leaves room for a lot more to be done. It was added that while one of the focuses of the country right now is on physical health care infrastructure, the company is happy to consult on same and assist in building.
Meanwhile, speaking prior to the signing, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony stated that the five-year agreement gives enough scope to develop a number of the programmes within the different departments as he noted that doctors here have been quite open about the challenges that they face day to day.
In addition, Dr. Anthony stated that the agreement opens opportunities for fellowships and training programmes for physicians and therefore can positively impact the way medicine is practised in Guyana.
“We didn’t have the opportunity for people to get these subspecialty types of training and I think that has affected the way that we have practiced medicine in Guyana. So with these opportunities opening up where we can send physicians to you to your programmes I think it would help to strengthen what we do here.”
Meanwhile, the director informed that the team has spent the last five days working with partners and that this would be the first of many trips. “I committed to the minister that we would have an on-the-ground presence in Guyana 365 days a year starting next year that we would review our progress with this MoU,” he assured.
Further, he mentioned that the progress will be reviewed quarterly.
