Gov’t will invest in research and development to improve healthcare -President Ali
-several primary and district hospitals to be upgraded
His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali says more investment is needed in research and development if Guyana is to better its healthcare system and his Government will be making substantial investments in that area.
President Ali was at the time delivering the feature address at the handing over of the $245 million Dr. Yesu Persaud Clinical Education Centre to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
The President said Guyana’s human resources have the potential to be innovative and to make their mark on the global stage, but he stressed that research and development are key.
“We have to invest in primary healthcare and to fix that, we need to invest in community healthcare. You will see in the next budget; we are going to create a new programme for research and development at the primary healthcare level,” Dr. Ali said.
The Head of State added that “through a US$17 million investment programme, very soon we will commence the modernisation and expansion of the Suddie, West Demerara and Bartica hospitals.” Those funds will be sourced from the High Commission of India.
In addressing primary healthcare, President Ali said the same attention is needed for the development of district hospitals.
“We have set aside resources for the upgrade of many district hospitals including Lethem, Paramakatoi, Diamond, Leonora and Linden. We are going to the community level.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony said the new facility will become the hive of undergraduate and post-graduate clinical training in Guyana.
“This new facility, the Dr. Yesu Persaud Clinical Education Centre will allow us to expand our current post-graduate training and provide the institute with better accommodation for simulation labs and other modern teaching aids. Also, we intend to use this building as the teaching hub to provide various online training to doctors and other medical personnel in all of our regions,” Minister Anthony said.
In his address, Dr. Yesu Persaud said the training that will be provided is needed to improve healthcare in Guyana.
“It will help Guyana in many ways. Our biggest problem in Guyana is that we cannot keep our people in. We have to do things to keep them in… if we can get our people together and work together this could be a nation of great prosperity and togetherness,” he said.
Government put $30 million towards the establishment of the Centre with the remainder coming from the Yesu Persaud Foundation.
