— cancer control and cardiovascular programmes being developed

A number of programmes are expected to be rolled out this year and over the course of the next five years to address chronic diseases in Guyana; namely a ‘one stop shop’ facility to cater for the needs of diabetic patients, a cancer control programme and cardiovascular programme.
During his daily COVID-19 update on Tuesday, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, noted that the Ministry of Health has put together a team under the Ministry’s Chronic Disease Department to develop a programme to address chronic illnesses in the country.

He noted that the intention of the programme is to change the current landscape pertaining to chronic diseases in Guyana, and the ministry has already identified specific areas of focus based on the prevalence of some chronic diseases to work with.
A feature component of the programme being developed would include establishing a ‘one stop shop’ facility to address the various needs of diabetic patients, and to provide the requisite services pertaining to diabetic care.
Dr. Anthony noted that $35 million was budgeted for in the 2021 Budget to build the facility which would house doctors, laboratories, personnel to offer nutritional advice to persons who are diabetic and personnel to conduct eye screening and to evaluate the feet of diabetic patients.

He explained that currently, the healthcare system in Guyana, which comprises health centres, district hospitals and regional hospitals is capable of providing care for diabetic patients and other persons with chronic diseases; however, the care is often distributed on a fragmented basis and the ‘one stop shop’ initiative would address this. “So when you come to this centre so to speak, all these services would be available to you, and we think by doing that we will prevent the fragmented care that is sometimes obtained and we will probably be able to manage our diabetic patients much better,” Dr. Anthony noted.
The Health Minister noted that similar initiatives have been implemented worldwide and he recently had discussions with a centre in Haiti which has been utilising the initiative for the last 10 years.

“So, it’s not a new concept, it’s just that it probably would be new to Guyana. So we are confident that once we implement this programme that we should see the improvement in diabetic care; so that’s one of the chronic diseases we want to look at,” he noted.
Diabetes is not the only chronic disease being targeted by the Ministry of Health, as a specific Cancer Control Programme is also currently being developed by the ministry with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Dr. Anthony explained that as part of the Cancer Control Programme, there are a number of sub-components addressing the more prevalent areas of cancers, for example, prostate cancer in men and breast and cervical cancer in women.

“In each of these areas or diseases, we want to come up with sub-programmes that would really address it in more detail and, hopefully, we can prevent many of these cancers from occurring and, therefore, lower the prevalence of these cancers in Guyana,” he said.
There will also be a focus on cardiovascular disease, with the ministry seeking to implement the HEARTS initiative, spearheaded by the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, which aims to reduce some of the risk factors to cardiovascular diseases.
“This includes reduction of sugar consumption, trans-fats and all those other risks factors that can help to promote cardiovascular diseases. So we believe if we reduce those risk factors, then people would live longer, healthier lives and that’s a programme that would be introduced this year,” Dr. Anthony noted.