FOR the past three years, the government of Guyana has been working tirelessly to fulfill their commitment of delivering high-quality healthcare services, making significant investments and other efforts.

This is according to President, Dr. Irfaan Ali who made this disclosure during a press conference which was held on Wednesday at the Office of the President.

The Head of State, as he spoke on the achievements of his government since entering office in 2020, stated that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) promised in its 2020 manifesto to transform the health of the people of the country by providing a world-class healthcare system.

He added that a promise made included ensuring people can live long and productive lives in Guyana. The subcomponent of these promises is having diseases diagnosed earlier and having access to the best treatment available, reducing child mortality, and improving patient and family experience in the health sector.

To this end, Dr Ali said that thus far Guyana has seen an improvement in life expectancy in spite of COVID-19 which caused a dip in life expectancies in countries around the world. He revealed that the country has maintained a life expectancy of 70 years old as compared to 68 years old in 2020.

In relation to the reduction of child mortality rates, these rates he said have slowly improved and currently stand at the lowest it has ever been in Guyana’s history. Child mortality rates now stand at 13 per every 1,000 births as opposed to 19 per 1,000 births in 2020.

Additionally, the Head of State revealed that maternal mortality has improved to its lowest ever as those rates now stand at 96 per 10,000 deliveries compared to 170 per 10,000 deliveries in 2017.

This, he noted, results from investment as he showed that the government is making actual results that provide real benefits and transformation for the people of the country.

Among improvements made in the country’s healthcare sector, it was also noted that cardiac surgery is now being provided in large numbers both in the private sector and at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

With this, Dr Ali said that paediatric cardiac surgery is now not only established but stands as a regular programme at the GPHC.

Some 12 children benefitted from open heart surgery this year and there are expectations of increasing that number to over 40 children per year in the coming year.

The number of overall surgeries has increased and is now approaching over 22,000 per year. President Ali then took the time to recognise the efforts of the nurses and doctors and other healthcare workers as he noted that these are the qualitative results of the investments being made in the sector.

“This is what your country Guyana is already doing, this is what your country and your government are delivering for the citizens of our beautiful country,” the Head of State lamented.

He stated that the annual budget for healthcare has increased by almost $150 per cent in just three years, from $35 billion to $85 billion. The President also revealed that the regional health budget has also more than doubled in less than three years.

Further, he disclosed that the government is also working on the transformation of the physical infrastructure of the health sector in the country.

This, he said, is why people will see more health centres and health posts being constructed across the country.

With this, it was noted that an aggressive programme is being worked on as an audit has been completed of all facilities and as such the authorities are in a position to know what is needed at each facility.

Against this backdrop, a baseline for the level of service that must be offered at all health facilities across the country has been set.

“We are investing to ensure that every centre across the country at least offers that baseline level of care which includes of course comfortable waiting areas, providing facilities such as restrooms, ensuring water and electricity, X-ray facilities in a regional setting,” he said.

With the rapid expansion and extension of the country’s health sector, he noted that this cannot be done with the expansion and improvement of the human resource assets in the sector.

As such, he revealed that there has been an expansion of medical post-graduate training as he noted that at the GPHC presently there are 16 postgraduate programmes, even as there are plans to add new programmes.

Added to this, a hybrid programme to increase the training of nurses from approximately 150 per year to 1,000 nurses per year has been initiated even as work has started to provide postgraduate training in specialty areas for nurses.

President Ali expressed, “All of this is geared towards achieving the promise of the manifesto that is a results-driven modern world-class healthcare system that brings with it, equity.”