THE New Amsterdam Hospital is in receipt of an Echo machine which was handed over by Health Minister, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran to the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Alan Johnson on Friday. The equipment that has a value of Cdn $10,000 was donated by Professor Debra Isaacs of University of Calgary, Canada. It is used to detect cardiological diseases which can lead to earlier medical interventions.
Dr Ramsaran pointed out that training for doctors of the hospital to use  new medical equipment as the Echo machine was recently completed.
He noted that such training is necessary as the Ministry of Health is expanding its services to Guyanese and expressed gratitude to Professor Issacs for her donation.
Guyanese based Dr Kishan Narine, who migrated and became a cardiologist, donated two larger medical machines to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation to do the same type of diagnosis as the Echo machine.
Three Guyanese doctors; Dr. Alexandra Harvey, Dr. Kishore Ramdass and Dr. Ramkarran Ramsackal; graduated from the Guyana Echocardiography Education Programme, a joint initiative among LIBIN Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Canada, the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Health Science Education.
Additionally one member of staff from the GPHC, Abiola Nelson- received special certification in Basic Ultrasound Principles and Equipment Management.
The LIBIN Cardiovascular Institute of the University of Calgary provided support for the programme and echocardiography equipment was donated, additionally, it was taught by Cardiologist echocardiography specialists and technologist educators from Calgary.
Doctors Harvey and Kishore are physicians at the GPHC, while Dr. Ramsackal works at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The Libin Cardiovascular Institute and course director Professor Debra Isaacs have committed to a five-year programme to provide twice yearly education updates to the graduate doctors and to continue to train new doctors annually through the Guyana Echocardiography Education Programme.