-in pursuit of opening specialty hospital here
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo will be leaving today for India on an unprecedented mission that is likely to bring a major boost to the provision of healthcare services here. The Guyana Government has secured a soft-loan agreement with the Indian Government for the establishment of a specialty hospital here, which will be manned by a team of experts from India.
The move will, in the long-term, significantly reduce the cost for Guyanese to travel abroad for such specialist healthcare as heart surgery, hip replacement and internal medicine among other medical procedures.
Said the President: “We expect that if that comes to Guyana… we have a lot of general medical practitioners. But we need a lot of specialists and specialty hospitals, so, rather than having to send people across the Caribbean and pay a fortune… we can do it here, cheaper.”
When operational, the programme will also offer health services to nationals in other South American countries, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and North America.
According to the President, Guyanese are likely to pay significantly less for services, given that this country will be co-investing in the initiative with the Indian Government.
“So we don’t have to send our people abroad for complicated surgeries etc; it will all be done here in Guyana, so the entire public health system is being transformed,” he told residents of the Dazzel Housing Scheme, at Paradise, on the East Coast of Demerara, as he shared his government’s vision for the local health sector.
“This is where we are spending our money… backing access to health care,” the President said, as he spoke of the government’s capacity now to invest in the country, having overcome the huge debt burden.
Within the last three years, eight new hospitals have been constructed, among them the Linden Hospital, four diagnostic and treatment centres, and an Ophthalmology centre at Port Mourant.
The 300 Guyanese studying in Cuba to become doctors are expected to return this year, and within three years, the number of doctors in Guyana will have swelled to 900.
In his interaction with the Dazzel Housing Scheme residents, a question was posed about the establishment of a health centre, and while agreeing that such a  facility in the community is necessary, the  President said he was more in favour of personalised and dedicated health care.
“With the large number of doctors [we have], we can even have some of them visiting the home. They don’t necessarily have to work from the health centre, so you can assign a doctor to two villages full time,” he said. 
He believes that healthcare in this manner is more impacting, as it will promote preventative care, and encourage people to be move vigilant with their own health. (GINA)