THE progress of Guyana’s health sector continues apace with the provision of more services to people and increasing the scope of local healthcare – a major achievement for a small developing country where healthcare is provided free of cost, despite constrained resources.

Yesterday, the Guyana Kidney Foundation was launched, which represented a major step forward – and a significant addition to the other interventions made, to date, in Government’s perpetual attempts to ensure that those suffering from various illnesses, in this instance renal diseases, have better access to the life-saving services they need.

Prior to this initiative, the public health sector in Guyana provided a comprehensive set of renal diagnostic and treatment services for free, including peritoneal dialysis. But other services for End-Stage Renal Diseases, such as dialysis and transplant services, had to be accessed through public/private partnerships at highly prohibitive costs.

Guyana is supported by various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the Three Rivers Foundation, which is a charitable organization dedicated to helping sick children in Guyana whose parents are too poor to afford medical care.

The Government of Guyana has succeeded in changing the situation where, before 2006, all of these services had to be obtained abroad.

Now, some of the dialysis services can be obtained in Guyana, with a few successful kidney transplant operations also having been done locally. However, mainly, transplant operations are done in India, with some of the patients accessing dialysis in Trinidad and Barbados.

With the new Foundation, the advances in this area are expected to be further propelled.

Before the early 1990s, financial support for medical treatment was not included as a routine line item in the budget. The only persons who obtained financial support for medical services would have been government functionaries of the previous administration and members of their families.
Since the early 1990s, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has added this line as a permanent feature of the Ministry of Health budget and, since 2001, this amount has been significantly increased.

Obtaining medical services for diseases and conditions that were once considered unavailable for the vast majority of the Guyanese people is now considered as a fundamental human rights issue and not as a privilege of a few.

Statistics from the Health Ministry indicate that over 200 Guyanese, at any one time, are at risk of dying because they suffer from renal failure and are in need of dialysis.

However, even as the quality and delivery of services improves, citizens themselves must take responsibility for their health by adopting better lifestyles.

Kidney problems, as well as heart diseases, are compounded by chronic non-communicable diseases, which contribute to a higher risk of premature death and other health complications, including heart diseases and kidney problems.

According to Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, chronic non-communicable diseases are essentially lifestyle diseases, since they correlate with changing lifestyles and he warns that Guyanese need to make changes and focus on healthy living.

Ramsammy contends that this can be done in five simple steps, i.e., eating healthy foods, control portions, check health, be happy and be active.

Chronic non-communicable diseases are ravaging the world, not only Guyana, and a staggering two of three deaths occurring in persons younger than 70 years result from a chronic disease.

Chronic non-communicable diseases today account for about 60 percent of morbidity and mortality in the Caribbean, producing major suffering and costs for individuals, families, governments, and businesses. Chronic diseases have a disproportionate impact on the poor, further exacerbating health inequities.

Step by step, through the dedication of committed stakeholders in the health sector, with the support of regional and international partners, Guyana is achieving equity in healthcare delivery.

This is a remarkable achievement for a Government that had inherited a devastated nation not quite two decades ago, and yet has considerably reduced poverty and is offering services to the people; services that have substantially enhanced the quality of their lives and their longevity.