Written by Chriseana Ramrekha
AS part of the activities to observe its 90th anniversary, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday held a health walk in the National Park, along with a medical outreach at its Headquarters on Regent Road and Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, G/town.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, First Vice-President, Mr. Mortimer Livan, who is also coordinator of the outreach, said the health walk and medical outreach form part of activities which the GPSU holds annually, and the outreach aims to have persons — particularly public servants and their families — come out and have medical checkups free of cost.

He said the GPSU had targeted persons in and around Georgetown for these activities, which are in their fourth consecutive year, but there was a disappointing turnout on the health walk, with a mere 15 persons participating in the three-mile walk around the National Park.

Representatives of the National Blood Transfusion Service (NTS) of the Ministry of Health were on hand to offer such services as testing of blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol, as well as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) testing.

Mr. Livan said the GPSU intends to get corporate Guyana to come on board with the staging of these activities. He said turnout for the past two years of staging these activities was great, and the GPSU had hoped to be well supported by corporate Guyana this year also.

The GPSU had also hoped to have two doctors present at the medical outreach; one of those doctors was an optician who would have been administering eye testing. When this publication turned up at the GPSU Head Office, the medical outreach activity had already closed off, so it is uncertain whether the doctors had been there.

Other activities planned in observance of the GPSU’s 90th anniversary include a movie night, fun day, and a reminiscence night wherein retired GPSU members would talk about what it was like being in the public service during their time.