Guyana Prison Service receives medical supplies
-Materials Management Unit also to benefit
The Guyana Prison Service (GPS) and the Ministry of Health’s Materials Management Unit (MMU) received additional medical supplies to assist in the fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
A quantity of much-needed medical supplies was brought into the country on a specially charted flight today.
Director of the Guyana Prison Service, Mr. Gladwin Samuels, and Head of Medical Department of GPS, Dr. Quacy St. Clair, and Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Robeson Benn was in attendance for the handover at the Ogle International Airport.
“Today, Guyana received donations, and these items will aid the prison service in keeping the coronavirus out of the prisons. We have been doing quite well so far with resources provided by the Government, and businesses across Guyana, and with the donations we’ve received today, we know it will provide more assistance,” Director Samuels stated.
He further noted that the main supplies will be distributed to the foremost facilities of GPS, situated in Georgetown, Lusignan, and New Amsterdam, while the quantitative items such as face masks and gloves will be distributed to other prison locations.
The supplies were donated by international contributors such as the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), and the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM Impacs).
CARICOM Impacs has contributed majorly to prison services across the Caribbean to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in prisons. Dr. St. Clair told DPI that CARICOM Impacs’s donation is the most timely and considerate of all.
“This agency donated primarily to the medical department of the Guyana Prison Service, a quantity of personal effective equipment, but more so, advanced medical items, to help everyone involved in the Guyana Prison Service, whether you’re an inmate or prison officer, as we fight against not only coronavirus but any chronic illness we have to encounter within our population,” Dr. St. Clair stated.
Face masks, gloves and advanced medical equipment such as patient cardiac monitors, defibrillators and nebulizers, are amongst the essentials donated.
During an exclusive interview with DPI, Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony, disclosed that the flight which delivered the medical donations will be carrying 500 test samples from Guyana to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).
“These medical donations will come to the central stores and the Material Management Unit at Diamond. We have a special section that we have established for the COVID-19 supplies, and the donations will go into that specific area. It will be inventoried, taken into stock and then distributed,” the Health Minister explained.
Director Samuels, Dr. St. Clair and the Health Minister, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony thanked all the agencies which contributed to the donation.