IN an effort to boost capacity in Guyana’s public healthcare system, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), on Friday, signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US non-profit integrated healthcare provider, Northwell Health, for the provision of resource and technical assistance.

The MoU, which is part of a programme at Northwell’s Centre for Global Health, was signed during a ceremony at the Cara Lodge Hotel. Guyana is one of three countries benefitting from the health provider’s global programme.

Signing on behalf of Northwell were Director of Global Health, Dr. Eric Ciao-Pena, and Chief Nursing Officer, Dr. Launette Woolforde, while GPHC Chief Executive Officer, Robbie Rambarran and Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony signed for Guyana.

Though the MoU will specifically target areas of support in education training, and human resource capacity building, Dr. Ciao-Pena explained that it is an overarching agreement that leaves a lot of room for more specific programmes.

“I really see this agreement as a floor but not the ceiling in terms of our involvement in consulting with Guyana. We are here for the long term. Our goal is to share lessons learnt, and we look forward to working together with all of you as we go forward,” Dr. Ciao-Pena stated as he made remarks during the ceremony.

Located in New York, where it is the largest healthcare provider and private employer, Northwell Health includes a network of 23 hospitals and more than 700 outpatient facilities. It has approximately 76,000 employees including 18,000 nurses.

Dr. Ciao-Pena noted that Northwell has a personal connection to Guyana, in that many of their patients are from the Guyanese diaspora in New York.

“We take care of the largest diaspora of Guyanese in the States. So, this is personal for us, you are our neighbours in more ways than one,” he expressed.

The signing of the MoU came at the end of a five-day mission by Northwell, which started on Monday and saw a 17-member team of doctors and nurses making visits to the GPHC as well as to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital and the New Amsterdam Psychiatric Hospital in Berbice.

Dr. Ciao-Pena praised the discussions and interactions that the team had with the various health officials over the past week, and believes it gave a strong foundation to the two sides working together on the way forward. He noted that one thing he was impressed with during his visits, was Guyana’s level of primary healthcare.

“We saw tremendous primary care. The level of integration of primary care, and breath, is truly impressive. We have a lot to learn in the US of shifting more things to primary care,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony conveyed Guyana’s gratitude to Northwell for choosing to work here.

“We had very fruitful discussions on the way forward in the relationship we will be building. We are extremely pleased that Northwell has chosen Guyana as one of three countries to roll out their global programme. I believe we have a lot to offer here, particularly in the area of tropical medicine. Our goal is to improve the standard of care that we offer to our patients,” Dr. Anthony noted.

Dr. Anthony added that there are a number of key areas where Guyana needs assistance and where the MoH will be looking to focus the support from Northwell on. These include help with the nursing programme, assistance in the development of biomedical technicians to service the many complex equipment and machinery that Guyana imports, and assistance with the pathology department.

Dr. Ciao-Pena has committed that Northwell will have staff present in Guyana throughout the year beginning from next year.
The GPHC CEO was very passionate in his appreciation of Northwell’s assistance and what it would mean for the development of healthcare at Guyana’s national referral hospital.

“On behalf of the people of Guyana, this means a lot to us. Our families living in the US who utilise the Northwell services will be happy about this collaboration. This engagement for the last week has been fruitful, and we look forward to utilising the efforts that Northwell will be providing,” he noted.