Government advances GEMA to transform emergency response

The government is moving to fundamentally reshape how emergency medical care is delivered in Guyana, with the establishment of the Guyana Emergency Medical Authority (GEMA), a national system designed to provide faster, standardised and life-saving response across the country.

Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony highlighted this initiative at the Consideration of Estimates and Expenditure for Budget 2026, noting that funding has already been allocated to operationalise the new system.

This will bring all public sector ambulances under a single administrative and technical structure.

“Our intention is to replicate an emergency service as they have in North America, where response time would be defined, like within a certain amount of time, you can get to the patient,” he said.

According to the minister, under GEMA, emergency response will overhaul the current emergency medical system.

Ambulances will operate through a central command centre with defined response times.

He noted that they will be strategically pre-positioned along the coast in the first phase, ensuring that when an emergency call is made, help can reach patients within a targeted timeframe.

Meanwhile, the second phase will extend those services into interior regions, expanding access for remote communities and further linking them all to the command centre, ensuring improved coordination between ambulances and hospitals and allowing emergency departments to be prepared before a patient arrives.

Minister Anthony also noted that the most significant changes will be the standardisation of ambulances, replacing them with purpose-built emergency units designed for active medical intervention.

“From the time they pick you up, they can start working with the patient. So we’ll be training the EMTs to respond like that, which means the ambulance has got to have headroom for you to stand up and work on the patient,” he outlined.

The new ambulances will be equipped with sufficient headroom and space to allow Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) to stand and begin treatment immediately upon reaching a patient, transforming ambulances from simple transport vehicles into mobile treatment units.

With this significant advancement, the minister also underscored that EMTs will also receive enhanced training to respond to three major emergency categories: trauma, heart attacks and strokes, conditions where minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

“From the time they get to the site, they should be able to start working with that patient, and as we bring them in, the emergency system would also be realigned to make sure that we can deal with these types of patients,” he noted.

The establishment of GEMA signals a major step toward modernising Guyana’s emergency medical framework, reinforcing the government’s commitment to building a more resilient, responsive and well-structured healthcare system.