-as part of plans to decentralise training, support expanded medical education programmes
WITH several new hospitals commissioned across Guyana, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony has said that very soon those facilities will be authorised to become teaching hospitals.
The health minister made this known while speaking during the recent Regional Health Officers conference.
Dr Anthony said the government is advancing plans to strengthen health-education infrastructure, including the completion and operationalisation of two new training facilities.
“We have two new nursing schools or training schools, for that matter, that we’ll be completing. One is at the Suddie Hospital compound, and one is in the old New Amsterdam Hospital compound,” he stated.
While the facilities will support nursing education, the minister noted that their scope will be significantly broader. When operationalised, they will accommodate multiple programmes offered through the Health Sciences Division, which currently runs approximately 20 courses.
The intention, he explained, is to decentralise these programmes so that greater numbers of people can access training without having to relocate to Georgetown.
Added to this, he noted that the ministry is working with the University of Guyana to extend the reach of its medical school into the regions. Dr Anthony said the initiative would allow students to complete much of their academic and clinical work within their own regions, although periodic attendance at the main campus would still be required. He added that the approach is designed to ensure “we’ll get more people in the regions properly trained.”
Meanwhile, the health minister stated that emphasis is also being placed on integrating training into newly opened hospitals. Dr Anthony explained that additional classroom spaces are being added at each of the six facilities commissioned this year.
With this, it will complement the existing teaching capacity traditionally centred at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Against this backdrop, Dr Anthony noted that the government will move to amend the relevant legislation to authorise the six new hospitals as teaching hospitals.
“Very soon, we will authorise that the six new hospitals would all become teaching hospitals, so we’ll make the relevant legal amendment so that that can happen,” he said.
