NINETY-TWO new medical doctors, who completed their seven years of training under the Guyana/Cuba medical scholarship programme, will now embark on a new journey to strengthen Guyana’s medical system.The graduation ceremony which was held at the Arthur Chung International Conference Centre Saturday evening was graced by Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton; Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings; Minister of State Joseph Harmon; and Cuban Ambassador, Julio Marchante.

In delivering the feature address at the ceremony, Minister of State Harmon congratulated the graduates as he looked forward to the continuation of the programme: “We are proud to have inherited this programme from the previous Administration and in many years to come, it will be stronger.”
Harmon told the graduates that they have completed their studies at a very important juncture in Guyana’s history.
“We have a new government that is committed and resolved to providing opportunities, facilities and services equally to our citizens on the coastland as well as in the hinterland,” he said.
Minister Harmon said further that a key element of this commitment is the delivery of healthcare services, as it is the Administration’s belief that citizens in the hinterland and rural coastal communities are entitled to the same quality of services and facilities that are available in the urban centres.

HEALTHCARE STRATEGY
“We will do well to take a keen look at the overall Cuban healthcare system, second to none in the Caribbean and perhaps even Latin America, in developing a strategy for healthcare delivery to our hinterland and rural Guyana,” the Minister of State noted.
He also noted that the training techniques and systems, which the graduates benefited from, would help the Government in establishing a viable national healthcare system.
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
And giving the charge to the new doctors, the Minister of Public Health challenged them to move to higher rankings and complete their post-graduate studies or specialist training and not just “hang up the lab coats neatly.”
Being an advocate for post-graduate training, Dr. Norton said that he will be pushing to provide more of this for medical students and so he encouraged them to follow their dream and go out and perform for the betterment of the country.
“The more Guyanese doctors we have, there will be a decline in the infant mortality rate across the country,” Dr. Norton declared.

For now, he added, the doctors will be split into groups which will see 14 of them heading to the New Amsterdam Hospital, 14 to the West Demerara Hospital, 10 to the Suddie Hospital, eight to the Linden Hospital, and 46 to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Meanwhile Ambassador Merchant said: “Thanks to the conviction and determination of our Governments and peoples to train and prepare professionals for life and the mutual appreciation and solidarity we practise, all of you had an opportunity to study medicine in Cuba, and today received the full accreditation for the noble gesture to save human beings and raise the living standards of your compatriots or others of the world.”
He encouraged the doctors to utilise their moral and ethical commitment to help Guyana, practising the values learned at the Cuban universities that hosted their studies.
Some of the newly-graduated medical doctors told this publication that they will live up to the Hippocratic/Physician’s Oath that they have taken and strive to the best of their abilities and work for the benefit of humanity.
The Guyana/Cuba Specialist Awards Scholarships Programme was established back in 2001 by then President Bharrat Jagdeo in a bid to present opportunities and address the shortfall in the local health sector. Its establishment stemmed from a visit Jagdeo paid to Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro.
The scholarships were established in several disciplines, including medicine and engineering. Among the specifications for each batch sent out was the presence of students of Indigenous descent. They were also given a stipend of Cdn $50 per month and would liaise with a student affairs officer in Cuba, who was appointed by the Government. (Navendra Seoraj)