Public Health Ministry partnering with IDB to expand services at Neonatal Unit ─ to further reduce neonatal mortality rate

DPI Guyana, Friday, July 13, 2018

The Ministry of Public Health is collaborating with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to enhance and expand the services at country’s main Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence while addressing the National Assembly today, explained that this will further reverse the trend of neonatal mortality in Guyana. It is also in keeping with the government’s mandate enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goal Three.

On Thursday, Opposition Member of Parliament Dr. Vindhya Persaud posed a question relating to the infant mortality rate at the GPHC between June 01, 2017, to June 30, 2018.

Minister Lawrence said that the number of neonatal deaths recorded for the period June 01, 2017 to June 30, 2018, was 119. These figures are not representative for the period January 01 2018 to June 30 2018.

Further, Minister Lawrence noted that there was a significant decrease in the number of neonatal deaths from 295 in 2014 to 101 in 2017.

The GPHC is the only Level Three NICU in Guyana capable of providing a newborn with invasive breathing support. The GPHC receives the most vulnerable and high-risk infants from all the public and private medical institutions countrywide. As a consequence, the hospital is anticipated to have a higher mortality rate than other medical facilities.

By: Synieka Thorne