WITH Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed on Thursday to advance the voucher initiative, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony has said that the ministry is preparing to roll out universal access for eye testing, removing the current age restrictions.

The minister made this known during the signing ceremony, which took place on Thursday at the Herdmanston Lodge where several private clinics, health-service providers and hospitals signed on to provide services for the roll out of the government’s various healthcare grants.

It was during his address that he said the expansion follows strong public demand and encouraging data from the programme’s first two years.

“We started this programme by looking at two broad categories: persons under 18 and persons 60 and above, and then we moved it to 50 and above,” Dr Anthony explained.

However, he added that the feedback received from many persons was that those persons in the 18 to 50 age range also wanted to be a part of the programme.

Since its launch in 2024, the initiative has seen rapid growth, with eye testing and spectacles vouchers accounting for a significant share of uptake, particularly among school-aged children and older adults.

“We wanted to ensure that anybody who’s at school does not have an eye problem that can affect their learning,” Minister Anthony said, adding that vision changes among older citizens were also a key concern.

“With these numbers, I think you have seen that we have successfully covered quite a large percentage of the people in these two age categories,” he added.

Meanwhile, moving ahead this year, under the expanded policy, any Guyanese who requires eye testing will be eligible, and those found to need spectacles will be able to access them through the voucher system.

The health minister noted that this move would widen the programme to everybody in the population, allowing more people to benefit from early detection and intervention.

He went on to note that the universal eye-care expansion will form part of a wider push this year to strengthen preventive health services and reduce long-term disease burdens nationwide.

The private hospitals, clinics and health-service providers signed the MoUs to provide services under the eye testing and spectacles voucher, cervical cancer screening and the universal health voucher programmes.