–Dr Singh says at Economic and Health Dialogue of the Americas
SENIOR Finance Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh, on Monday, while participating in the second high level meeting of the Economic and Health Dialogue of the Americas (EHA) Initiative, said that “the question of adequate supply of trained health sector professionals is one that cannot be confronted nationally alone, it has to be confronted regionally, and even hemispherically.”
He went on to say that it is time for hemispheric action to address human resource deficits in the health sector, which is also a global problem.
The meeting was chaired by the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, US Department of State, Jose W. Fernandez, and was attended by finance and health ministers from across the Americas.
Together, EHA supported by the US State Department and Department of Commerce represents an effort that focuses the region’s governments, private sector and civil society on shared challenges and opportunities to build resilient, inclusive, sustainable, and equitable health economies and ecosystems.
While discussing challenges in the region, Dr Singh pointed out that in countries like Guyana, where the population density is relatively low, and with several communities being remote from the major urban centres, delivering care to the entire population is extremely challenging and expensive.
In this regard, and in keeping with President Ali’s commitment to improving access to and delivery of social services for all Guyanese citizens, the government is building out 12 regional hospitals, and potentially as many as 50 centres with some form of telemedicine capabilities, which will aid in remote diagnosis, potentially allowing for remote treatment.
Further, Minister Singh, in relation to the human resource deficit in the health sector, said: “Perhaps the single biggest challenge we face in the health sector is ensuring that we have an adequate supply of suitably skilled doctors and nurses, bearing in mind that we are operating in an environment where the market for skilled medical professionals is a global market and that there is a global shortage of supply of skilled health sector professionals, and, therefore, the question of adequate supply of trained health sector professionals is one that cannot be confronted nationally alone, it has to be confronted regionally and even hemispherically.”
In addressing this deficit, the Government of Guyana is investing heavily in the training of health sector professionals including doctors and nurses, building out of two new nursing schools, and utilising online platforms for the delivery of nurse training.
In closing, Dr Singh used the opportunity of the forum to thank the relevant agencies of the United States of America government for the leadership they have provided in this hemispheric approach to this most pressing challenge to ensuring that the region is equipped to manage and contain public health risk.
Dr Singh also highlighted the absolute necessity for coordinated hemispheric and multilateral approaches in confronting problems that are multinational in nature, with public health risks being perhaps the most obvious example of such problems, a lesson that would have been learnt from the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senior Finance Minister is currently in Punta Canta in the Dominican Republic, where he attended 2024 Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Invest which were held from March 6 to 10.
