Ramsaran reports…

THE Medical Services in Guyana have benefitted from the training of over 200 young Guyanese doctors, who returned from Cuba, over the past two years, to serve the public.
Another 300 will be coming back in 2011 to serve as General Medical Officers (GMOs), to start the process of their development in the field, Minister within the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran informed the Chronicle last week.
He was speaking at a farewell for two young Guyanese doctors, who travelled to Guatemala on Saturday, to begin three years of training in opthalmology.
Dr. Vineshri Khirodhar and Dr. Jenell Sarju graduated from Cuba in 2008 and served as GMOs in Regions Four (Demerara/Mahaica) and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), before, successfully, applying for scholarships to specialise in Guatemala.
A third, Dr. Celeste Haynes, currently working at Annai, in Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo), who is another Cuba graduate in 2008, will be travelling to Paraguay in April on a similar scholarship.
And returning home early this year will be one more Cuban trained doctor, Rene Mc Donald, of Linden. Dr. Mc Donald is presently in Paraguay on the final year of a three-year opthalmology scholarship.
Mc Donald is one of the first persons to secure the grant under the tripartite arrangement involving Eye Care Guyana, the Government of Guyana (GOG) and the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Ramsaran told the guests at the function that the abilities of returnees from Cuba will need to be sharpened, through specialisation, so they can perfect a skill and improve the quality of services they can deliver.
He said the specialisation of young Guyanese doctors, through additional overseas training, has been ongoing in the past five years and is being, energetically, advanced.
“It takes many years to create a specialist, like a surgeon, gynaecologist or obstetrician, from a junior doctor. The Government of Cuba has helped us to produce the doctors. They did a very good job and we are very grateful. Here at home, our task has been to create the specialists and the work has already started in many fields,” he stated.
Ramsaran said the Ministry is creating a national cadre of highly trained specialists and made specific reference to ophthalmology.

COLLABORATION

The scholarships for the related training were arranged through collaboration among the GOG, the MOH and Eye Care Guyana which is associated with Eye Care Caribbean and Eye Care United Kingdom (UK).

Ramsaran said the eye care agencies have been sourcing the scholarships for Guyana and Government has been selecting the scholars with the aim of securing the cadre of specialists drawn, predominantly but not exclusively, from among the Cuban trained graduate doctors in the field of opthalmology.

He said much of this training is taking place within the context of the recently established National Opthalmology Centre (NOC) at Port Mourant, Corentyne, Berbice, where it is capable to perform 10,000 operations annually but is presently, exclusively, staffed by Cuban specialists supported by Guyanese nurses.

Ramsaran said the objective is that Guyanese specialists will, ultimately, take over the eye care services, starting at Port Mourant but the Cubans would still be there over the next seven years or so, to offer superior guidance and training.

He added: “I want to bring to the public attention that the eye care programme and, especially, efforts to create highly trained specialists in all areas of the local medical service did not start today. It started two years ago and preparations for such, as sourcing the scholarships, negotiations and so on, began five years ago.”

“We created the doctors and we are creating the specialists. We are giving our young people professional progression, skills to make our eye care investment sustainable. We, at the MOH, have been sourcing partners to do quality work and quality training. Things are happening fast and furious. The MOH is on top of its business,” Ramsaran declared.

He said Drs. Khirodar, Sarju and Haynes will be receiving their salaries and all other employment benefits while on overseas training, just as if they were at home.

The three had responded to a public advertisement for graduates who wanted to become eye specialists and were chosen from amongst several applicants, having emerged at the top of a competitive selection process, Ramsaran explained.

He said the tripartite collaboration to get ophthalmology scholarships will continue for the next few years and the MOH is hoping to send two or three doctors to be trained as eye specialists each year.

“While this is happening, the GOG will, of course, continue looking for other sources of scholarships to advance specialisation among our young graduate doctors,” Ramsarran indicated.