National Medical Scientific Council to be established − President Ali

President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has announced plans by his administration to establish a National Medical Scientific Council.

The president was delivering the feature address at the launch of STEM Cell Therapy and Immunotherapy services at the Woodlands Hospital, Saturday evening.

President Ali said he is pleased with this development because of how it integrates with where the country is headed.

He noted the importance of medical science and its relation to medical care, facilities and technology.

“Because it evolves as a science, it is tested, it [involves] things that change continuously, that help to give you better care, that help to develop better technology, so if the science is dead then care is dead, if the science is dead the technology is dead, that is why we now must move to this new level.

“That brings our best talent to investigate, not old technology, the best-in-class medical science development that can be applied to Guyana to help us here,” he pointed out.

The president noted that the new developments would not have been possible without the legal regulatory platform through which the science can evolve.

“Nothing here could have been discussed if we didn’t take the steps forward, so modernising the legal environment in which urban and regional planning, medical science and all that we are doing will evolve are exciting things but requires time and effort, it requires a lot of reading, it requires application of theory,” the head of state posited.

He disclosed that elaborate discussions were held with the Indian Minister of Health and other senior medical personnel, highlighting that Guyana’s medical corps can match medical talent anywhere in the world.

“I’m of the very strong view that with the type of human resources we have in the health sector here, and I have interacted with many of our doctors, the combined ability of our medical corps, the core group of our medical talent in Guyana can match any medical talent anywhere across this world, I’m convinced of that and I want Guyana to know that the fundamental core of our medical system can stand up for itself and can represent itself, I’m very convinced about that,” the president asserted.

The head of state also noted several breakthroughs in medical science and some of the local developments in the health sector.

“The state and the government has a responsibility to create this enabling environment to support this new architecture that we are building from an infrastructure perspective, from a legislative perspective, but more importantly from a primary healthcare perspective, when a public healthcare system is operating efficiently and reliably, it allows enough information to change the health information set and the health care set, before a health crisis occurs what that means is that stem cells is highly effective where there is early diagnostics, this is important, so the public healthcare system must be able to support diagnostics at a very early stage. Once that occurs the science now must be implemented at that early stage,” he stated.

President Ali also expressedthat he is pleased with the direction in which both private and public healthcare are headed, but noted that there is still a lot to be done.

“In the next seven years, we are not trying to, by the grace and help of God, in the next seven years we are building in Guyana, a first world healthcare system for our citizens and a healthcare system that is fit for purpose and one that will provide global healthcare services for the rest of the world mark this night,” Dr Ali reiterated.