– Dr Allan Outridge is realising his dreams
By Ravena Gildharie
HE spent his early teenage years reporting and presenting the daily televised newscasts at the National Communications Network (NCN) and had quickly gained a name for himself in the local media. Today, Dr Allan Outridge, 29, is among a group of top Guyanese medical doctors bestowed prestigious scholarships to advance their skills in China.
Allan is on a three-year resident programnme at the Tongji Medical College of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology to complete his Master’s Degree in Internal Medicine. He is developing specialty in Cardiology and is expected to return to Guyana in 2019. This is a dream come true for the young Guyanese who hails from a single-parent home, where the family constantly battled financial constraints and other hardships. During his childhood years, he shared a home with eight other young children left in the care of their grandmother. However, with determination, family support and opportunities provided by the Guyana Government, Allan is attaining success.

He reflected that the scholarship selection process was stringent and comprehensive, as he competed with scores of well-trained medical practitioners from across Guyana. After a series of interviews with health officials at the Public Service Ministry, the top 10 applicants were chosen.
The young Guyanese physician is a former awardee of the Guyana/Cuba Medical Scholarship Programme from which he graduated in 2013, after completing studies in Human Medicine at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.
Allan was born to a single-parent mom and never knew his father. He grew up with his grandmother, Faye Noel Welch, in New Amsterdam, Berbice, along with eight other cousins and siblings. The eldest of the lot, Allan helped care for the younger children and prepared them for school every morning. He attended the St Therese’s Primary School and later, Berbice High School, before being relocated to live with his mom and three other siblings in Georgetown.

With the absence of a father, Allan said that his mother, though a police sergeant, was burdened financially to care for the family.
“Many times, she went at the expense of her own basic needs just to ensure that all [of] mine were met,” he related.
In the city, Allan briefly attended the Christ Church Secondary School and wrote the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams. He gained a work study attachment at NCN on Homestretch Avenue and garnered a passion for the media. The NCN supervisors, impressed by his performance, subsequently offered Allan permanent employment as a Television and Radio Reporter and Anchor. He was, then, 17.
“NCN was obviously my training ground, it was the institution that taught me everything I needed to know about reporting. And I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of working with some of the best during that time from both the radio and television departments,” Allan reflected.

A childhood dream become reality
However, while he worked as a reporter, Allan maintained his childhood fascination with medicine, and kept hopes of becoming a medical doctor despite his family’s financial constraints.
Then he witnessed one of his older friends pursue Veterinary Medicine studies through the Guyana/Cuba Programme and he was inspired to seek the available opportunity.
“When I heard [my friend] had left for Cuba to pursue her studies, I was overwhelmingly happy for her and her parents who have invested a lot of time and money toward her education. I knew my turn was coming, I didn’t know how exactly that was going to happen or when, but I knew that my turn was going to come if I worked hard enough. And that was precisely what I did. I think two or three years after she left, I was awarded a government scholarship to Cuba to study medicine,” Allan said.
He added: “Though it was a struggle and an uphill battle, my grandmother and mother devoted most of their resources towards my education, which wasn’t easy at all.”
At medicine school in Havana, Allan participated in the school’s radio broadcast which helped his proficiency in Spanish.

As his confidence grew, Allan recalled a particular incident that almost made him quit and return to Guyana. He was on rotation schedule at the Juan Manuel Marquez Paediatrics Hospital and did not show up for duty one day, which irked the professor and Allan was barred from sitting the final exam of that rotation. While scolding Allan, the professor pointed out, “Because of your absence, a paediatric patient could have died.” This information caused the young trainee to be flooded by emotions.
“That frightening and unforgettable experience gave me an entirely new meaning to this career; the respect I have for life and this career grew stronger from that moment onward. Never again did I miss an on-call,” Allan highlighted.
During the last year in Havana, Allan became President of the Caribbean Stars Youth Club.
After graduating, Allan was attached to the Linden Hospital Complex and also worked at the Upper Demerara Regional Hospital, the Kwakwani Hospital Complex and the Ituni Health Centre.

Allan plans to one day open a specialist clinic in Linden, based on the respect and warm response he had received in the mining town as a young doctor.
His advice to other young people: “Seize the opportunity when it presents itself. No one owes you anything; if you see something and you want it, go get it yourself. Never forget where you came from and the people who would have assisted you in life.”