MINISTER of Health Dr. Frank Anthony has said that with advancements made over the last few years, Guyana is now among the leading centres for transplants in the Caribbean.

Dr. Anthony was at the time delivering remarks during the launch of the Guyana Global Cardiology Initiative.

According to the health minister, after significant work has been put in, legislation governing transplantation in Guyana has been enacted, catering for the formation of a transplant agency among other things.

With the establishment of this agency, he noted that all transplant-related matters are being done under the auspices of this agency, and further, if any hospital would like to be accredited to do transplants, then they would have to go through an accreditation process through the agency.

Thus far, Dr. Anthony indicated that the transplants that they have been doing are mostly from live donors, but work is ongoing to ensure that Guyana will be able to conduct transplants from deceased donors in the near future.

“The technology is a little different; you have to put a lot of systems in place, but we’re working towards getting this done,” he affirmed.

To this end, he added that whatever is being developed in Guyana is not only going to be for the benefit of Guyanese citizens, but also to be shared with the rest of the Caribbean region and this is important.

Against this backdrop, he said, “We are probably one of the leading centres now for kidney transplants in the Caribbean, and also for corneal transplants”.