Regions to access $100M to improve staff accommodation

The government will be allocating an additional $100 million to each Regional Health Office, with the primary objective of addressing staff accommodations.

Minister of  Health, Dr. Frank Anthony made the announcement Monday, at the opening of the Regional Health Officers (RHOs) Conference at the ministry’s headquarters, Brickdam, Georgetown.

“We would have given each RHO at least $100 million to help with the upgrade of infrastructure in your regions. You received another $100 million this year. We are going to give you another $100 million per region so that we can look at improving accommodation for staffing across these different regions,” Minister Anthony noted.

Within three years, the government made critical investments in the health sector towards the delivery of enhanced access to healthcare services countrywide.

These include more access to medical equipment, major upgrades to facilities, training opportunities, and the utilisation of technology. 

Dr. Anthony stated that there has been constant improvement at the primary healthcare level.

As the government aims to offer more services, the minister underlined that several Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) consultants have been working closely with Guyana to map out various services, which can be offered now at the primary healthcare level.  

“They have come up with approximately 216 interventions that can be offered at every one of these health posts and centres. This is something that we expect our RHOs would be able to take on board. If you are not offering this range of services, that you work systematically to make sure these services can be offered at health posts and centres.”

To offer these interventions, the RHOs were tasked to examine their systems to ensure the services, including adequate access to infrastructure, personnel, and equipment, can be offered.

The health minister noted that the RHOs have the opportunity to transform the delivery of healthcare services, which are being executed at the national level in all regions. This will help to provide enhanced access to services to Guyanese.

“Once we are able to do that, I think we would see not just the physical infrastructure changing, but that the culture within the Ministry of Health is going to change. So that when patients come to us, they can feel confident that they are getting the best care,” he added.  

Over the next three days, the health officers will discuss various strategies and challenges, with healthcare partners, to find solutions to deliver effective and efficient healthcare services nationwide.