FIRST Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger, was on Tuesday given a guided tour of the new and improved Doobay Medical Centre, located at Annandale, East Coast Demerara, which is known for its leadership in dialysis treatment.

The facility is now equipped with a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, Intensive Care Unit and clinical laboratory. The Centre has also added more space which will facilitate a research Centre, a pharmacy and an office for the resident doctors. Once these additions are completed, the Centre will be able to offer a wider range of services and serve a larger section of the Guyanese population.

During a brief meeting with the Centre’s executive body, the First Lady advised the team on strategic efforts that they could implement to secure strong partnerships in both the public and private sectors in order to bring the Centre’s vision of providing total care for all, to full fruition.

She commended the team for their forward thinking in healthcare and expressed how impressed she was with the ideas that they had presented to her, as well as the improvements made to the hospital. “I have passed here and thought [that] it was only dialysis, but you’ve showed me that you have much more. You’re not static here but you’re looking at outreaches. There is a vision and a plan … I think it’s a marvelous thing that you’re doing here” she said.

Meanwhile, cardiovascular surgeon and founder of the Doobay Medical Centre, Dr. Budhendra Doobay, said that his motivation for starting the Centre was rooted in his desire to provide more affordable health care for persons who needed dialysis. He indicated that approximately 50 percent of the dialysis patients received subsidy and did not have to endure the burden of the full cost for their treatment.

Additionally, Dr. Doobay, in sharing his vision for the future of the hospital, said that they were aiming to transform the Centre into a mini hospital. “We want to do a specialised hospital; do cardiac, neurovascular surgeries and neurosurgery and also whatever money comes, we put it in a little pool and help the dialysis Centre as well,” he said.

The expansion of the Centre was funded primarily by the Canadian charity organisation, International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF), the Beharry Group of Companies, the Doobay Medical Centre board of directors and Mr. Sattaur Gaffoor.

In an invited comment, Chairperson for the IDRF Global Monitoring, Mr. Winston Kassim explained that his organisation wanted to assist the less privileged sections of the population by subsidising the cost of their treatment. “In the future, we plan on helping the Doobay Centre here to do prevention work.

So rather than [just] treating the patients with the dialysis, we do research in collaboration with McMaster University so that it could prevent the dialysis from happening or the malfunction of the kidney,” he said. Mr. Kassim also said that he had extended the invitation to First Lady because of how impressed he was with her humanitarian work across Guyana.

The Doobay Medical Centre was founded in September of 2011, to provide dialysis services. Since the opening, the Centre has expanded its operations and services to cater to more than 100 patients. (Ministry of the Presidency)