– Dr. Ramsammy
MINISTER of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said that in keeping with the national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) thrust, the health sector will not be left behind. He said it is taking advantage of a system, in which development can be advanced to ensure the efficient delivery of quality health care.

“If the sector does not take advantage of ICT, it will be a great tragedy,” he said in an interview with the Chronicle.
Ramsammy said the health sector, apart from the Ministry of Finance, is one of the most computerized locally and the network is being used to implement its programmes, educate and advance general public awareness.

He said, in moving forward with the health sector’s work programme, in line with ICT, there are three main areas of focus: connecting to the family, training of health workers and making expert patients, through modernised information dissemination.

According to him, a new approach will allow the family to pose health questions and concerns to the Ministry and receive timely responses.

“A good push for this programme is the President’s $30M laptop initiative. We are hoping to piggy back on this programme, so that we can take services into the home at the family level,” Ramsammy explained.

He said online courses, to improve the quality of health workers, are also targeted and, in the other area of expert patients, promoting self-management will, hopefully, make persons more health conscious.

However, Ramsammy acknowledged that there will be troublesome patients but said computerising patient data would allow health workers “to recognise these slips.”

In that context, he announced that a pilot project will soon be implemented in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), at the New Amsterdam Hospital, where patients would be issued health cards containing all their data.
“We are starting with 500 patients to see how it goes, before we introduce it in other areas,” Ramsammy said.

He maintained, though, that while its implementation will take time, in the long run, it would significantly improve efficiency in the health sector.

The card is bar coded and will afford health workers access to the patients’ medical history and they would have all the information in one place,” Ramsammy said.
He said the $1.2 billion fibre optic cable, being brought in by the Government from Brazil, would assist the process, on which speedy completion will be dependent on resources.

“It is possible to start this now, but we will have to make hard financial decisions,” Ramsammy cautioned, although assuring that this is the direction in which the health sector is headed.

“This will take time but it will bring efficiency in the future and improve the quality of health care Guyana delivers,” he reiterated.

Health care in Guyana is provided to Guyanese free of cost, to which the current Administration is committed and Ramsammy said the commitment will not be compromised.