THE Government of Guyana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology for enhancement of local healthcare facilities.

At the official signing Wednesday morning, Minister of Health Volda Lawrence, said the MoU is the beginning of a process which will result in enhanced healthcare facilities for the citizens of Guyana. According to the minister, concrete projects may begin in 2019.

“We are looking at the GPHC, since it is our tertiary institution. You will be aware that particularly our A and E (Accident and Emergency) department is really under the threshold, in terms of a standard operating procedure that should pertain in a critical care unit. So, the first two aspects we will be getting involved with is a trauma centre and a critical care centre, which will be able to take off the deficiencies which we do have presently. This will ensure improved delivery of care for our patients and also upgraded equipment for the staff works,” the Public Health Minister said.

Meanwhile, Dr Gernot Grimm of the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, said the signing of the MoU is in keeping with the good relations enjoyed by the two nations for decades. He added that the success of the MoU would be seen in the tangible achievements sooner, rather than later.

“We have brought along a couple of technical experts from Austria to have this work done as soon as possible to our bilateral negotiations, so we really want to show and speed up the whole process to be in a position to start as soon as possible,” the Chief-of-Staff said. The Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology is a government department which provides the general framework for infrastructure from rail to road, water and air to telecommunications and technology development in Austria. The signing of the MoU was witnessed by Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, Minister within the Ministry of Public Health Karen Cummings, along with CEO of the GPHC, Brigadier (ret’d) George Lewis, among other stakeholders. (DPI)