KEITH Cummings, a Guyanese medical professional, on Thursday made a valuable donation of medical books to the University of Guyana’s library at the Turkeyen Campus, adding to his previous substantial donations.

Dr. Cummings once studied pharmaceuticals in Guyana before he became one of the first interns to be sent to Grenada. Subsequent to this, he returned to study medicine as a family physician. He moved to St. Kitts and Nevis in 1994, and then returned to Guyana to study medicine, graduating in 2003.

The donation is valued at GY$1 million and will add great value to UG’s library holdings in areas such as plastic surgery, internal medicine, and medical education.

The acting University Librarian, Dr Simone Bernard, said medical textbooks are the cornerstone of teaching and learning in the field of medicine, despite the influx of digital resources.

Ensuring accuracy and reliability, textbooks will help the learners to understand how theoretical knowledge applies to real-world clinical settings, by integrating current clinical practices.

Since 2016, Dr Cummings has been giving back to UG through donations of medical books and journals to improve the quality of education, research and training for new physicians.

According to Dr Cummings, UG students can and will receive the same level of medical knowledge, access to quality resources, and achieve the same clinical competencies as a physician in Canada, the United States, or anywhere else in the world.

The learning resources, along with other initiatives by the university, will create opportunities for students to be clinically sharper, in terms of skills and knowledge, and able to embrace and function at a higher level.

Additionally, Dr Cummings praised the quality of education he received from UG, stating that it has not only laid the foundation for him to become a clinician and teacher on an international stage, but has also blessed him and his family tremendously.

“The impact of UG’s education on my career has been profound. From even the first patient I saw as an intern in Grenada, to the thousands of patients I care for, it’s because of my foundation at UG,” he remarked.

Accepting this generous donation on the University’s behalf was Professor Emanuel Cummings, the Deputy Vice Chancellor.

Professor Cummings noted that these books are another addition of Dr Cummings’ continued contribution to medical education.

“Dr Cummings, we’re very grateful. We’ll forever be grateful to you, and I hope that both faculty and staff will make the best use of these resources. They were specifically placed in the library, because we thought that it would be better managed here,” the professor said.

It was stated that Dr Cummings’ contribution complements the government’s vision of expanding local medical education.