THE Government of Guyana has touted plans to transform the country’s healthcare sector and already partners have begun engagements to assist in the sector’s advancements, particularly in the area of local manufacturing of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals.

The European Union (EU) Ambassador to Guyana, Rene Van Nes, on Thursday, told local journalists that the EU will assist Guyana and Barbados to establish the regulation needed to manufacture pharmaceuticals.

“After COVID the realisation was very clear that yes, you can help these countries by giving them the vaccines, but it’s even better to help them with setting up their own production facility so that they can make their own vaccines,” the EU Ambassador said.

In 2023, the EU increased its support for vaccine production in Rwanda. The EU partnered with the Central African state to strengthen the local ecosystem for vaccines and medicines manufacturing and health resilience which saw the opening the first BioNTech Africa manufacturing site in Kigali, Rwanda.

It was later reported that Guyana, Barbados and Rwanda were examining a procurement mechanism to manufacture vaccines in the Caribbean.
The Government of Guyana has been making massive investments and partnering with several international organisations to advance its healthcare delivery.

Currently, several massive infrastructural projects, which include the building out of new hospitals and medical training facilities, are ongoing.
“It fits with bigger picture, the bigger policy objective of the government to really boost its health sector,” the EU Ambassador said, adding: “What we see here are real potential in the sector and we think that we can do something together here …the EU and Guyana can work together in this way that we can add value to what is happening in the health sector.”

Just recently, Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali had reiterated the government’s intention and seriousness to pursue a manufacturing plant for pharmaceuticals and a modern health system.

“We are very serious about the establishment of a vaccine manufacturing facility in Guyana, to service the entire LAC [Latin America and the Caribbean] region,” President Ali said at the weekend, while commissioning a state-of-the-art pathology lab at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
The Head of State, at that time, disclosed that Guyana was working with several partners.

“Cuba has reached out to us to partner in this area of vaccine development and research. So, this is another piece of the puzzle that will migrate our healthcare system to a platform in which it will be second to none,” Dr Ali said.

Simultaneously, the Ministry of Health, he related, has been exploring the introduction of new and advanced services which include the introduction of a brachytherapy treatment centre which will see improved treatments for cancers.

Investments are also being made to the delivery of healthcare at the country’s premier referral hospital.
“We are targetting 25 additional digital x-rays this year. In the regional and sub-regional facilities, definitely at all the new facilities that are coming on stream including Lethem, Linden, and Bartica, we will have CT scans installed,” the Head of State said.

While the infrastructure within the sector is being upgraded, discussions have already begun to improve the human resources.

Discussions have begun between the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Government of Guyana for the establishment of a medical school in New Amsterdam, Berbice, Region Six.

“With investments that we’re making, I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that our human resources asset in the healthcare system is quickly becoming world-class assets. We cannot deliver world-class healthcare here without upping our game,” the President posited.