SINCE October last year, Guyana has received medical equipment from the Government of Japan through a partnership with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to enhance its healthcare system.

At a closing ceremony on Tuesday, at the Guyana Marriot Hotel in Kingston, UNOPS Director and representative for Guyana, Alejandro Rossi, said the project had produced many positive results.

According to Rossi, the initiative was extended to Guyana, Belize, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

“With great satisfaction, in October 2021, we announced the first tranche of deliveries of medical equipment in Guyana and this project, Guyana, in fact, was the first country to provide a positive reaction, and today, six months later, we are proud to be here at the handover ceremony,” he said.

The donation from Japan, he noted, totalled some US$791,000 and included four ambulances, Land Cruisers, diagnostic digital mobile imaging units, ECG recorders, Pulse oximeters and more.

To this end, it was revealed that the equipment had been distributed to 13 hospitals across the country and will benefit more than 10,000 people.

“Particularly in the case of Guyana, the biggest savings were obtained exceeding more than 11 per cent and the savings obtained allowed to expand the procurement of items between May and June 2022. The Ministry of Health will be receiving the last tranche of equipment including portable ultrasound scanning systems and oximeters,” the UNOPS representative said.

Meanwhile, Counsellor of the Embassy of Japan in Trinidad and Tobago, Yasuhiko Kamada, stated that, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Japan has mobilised various kinds of assistance as a demonstration of international solidarity.

Kamada indicated that Japan also remains one of the largest contributors to the COVAX facility, having committed some US $1 million to support equitable access to vaccines.

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony expressed gratitude to the Government of Japan for the generous support.

“During this crisis, the pandemic, we have had many challenges and for poorer countries with less developed health systems it was even more startling … and you know what really helped us was that many countries came together to help us with the equipment to make sure that we can reach out to the most vulnerable and to serve those patients in the best way possible,” the Health Minister said.

He revealed that, for the project, the Government of Japan did not decide what items were received; however, they set aside resources and the Health Ministry assessed the needs of the country, and as such, UNOPS procured the items.

“When we evaluated what our needs were, we felt that we needed ambulances to transport patients from various locations and more so the hinterland locations; that was why we chose the types of ambulances that are offroad vehicles and we got four of them and they have been sent out to those regions,” he indicated.

The ambulances have started working within the various regions even as a number of other pieces of equipment are expected to be delivered to Guyana within the next two months.