Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony says Guyana’s healthcare sector has undergone unprecedented transformation over the years, evolving from a struggling system plagued by shortages and deteriorating infrastructure into one now seeing major expansion and modernization.
Speaking during an interview on Starting Point, Dr. Anthony reflected on his long history within the Ministry of Health and the difficult conditions that once existed across the country’s healthcare system.
“It took quite a while for change to start occurring because at the time we didn’t have a lot of money, so we had to be very strategic in where we were placing those resources,” the Health Minister explained.
According to Dr. Anthony, when he first joined the Ministry, the healthcare system faced severe shortages of medicine, poor sanitation, inadequate staffing, and crumbling infrastructure. He recalled that sections of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) were in poor condition, with damaged flooring, deteriorating wards, and limited investment being made into the institution.
“We didn’t have a lot of doctors back then too, or nurses, so we had a system that was really limping along,” he stated.
Dr. Anthony noted that efforts to improve the health sector began after the People’s Progressive Party entered office in 1992, with gradual investments being made to improve infrastructure and healthcare delivery nationwide.
Among the earlier projects undertaken was the construction of an ambulatory care unit at GPHC, where the accident and emergency unit is. Previously this was on Lamaha Street. The Minister said new theatres and intensive care units were later added as part of continued upgrades to the hospital.
Reflecting on the more recent transformation of the sector, Dr. Anthony described the period from 2020 to present as unlike anything previously experienced.
“This current moment, starting from 2020 to now, has been unprecedented,” he said.
However, the Minister acknowledged that the beginning of that period was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed major weaknesses within the healthcare system when the administration reassumed office in August 2020.
According to Dr. Anthony, Guyana initially lacked the diagnostic capacity to effectively identify COVID-19 cases, with PCR test results taking up to nine days to be returned to the regional facilities from Georgetown.
“Nine days was too long. That person would have either died or gotten better during that period,” he stated, while explaining the urgent need to improve testing capacity across the country.
The Health Minister also revealed that the country had very limited ICU capacity during the early stages of the pandemic, noting that there were only seven ICU beds available at the time for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
He further described the state of the COVID-19 facility at Liliendaal when the government took office, saying the hospital was incomplete and lacked basic operational systems.
“When we took office and went in, nothing was working, no staff, no ventilators, no beds, nothing,” Dr. Anthony recalled.
He explained that within weeks, the government worked to equip the facility, complete construction works, and prepare the hospital to receive its first patient by September 2020.
Despite the challenges, Dr. Anthony said Guyana was able to manage the pandemic relatively well compared to many countries within the Caribbean region, crediting the government’s response strategy and vaccination programme for helping to reduce fatalities.
“One of the big things we were able to do was to introduce vaccination, and we had one of the largest uptakes of vaccines, which was 89 per cent,” the Minister said.
Dr. Anthony noted that after stabilizing the healthcare system during the peak of the pandemic, the government shifted its focus toward wider modernization efforts beginning around 2023.
He said the extensive works currently being seen across the country’s healthcare sector are the result of investments made between 2023 and 2025 aimed at transforming and decentralizing healthcare delivery nationwide.