TWO biomedical experts from France recently visited Guyana as part of an EU-funded initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s management and maintenance of medical equipment, while building the technical capacity needed to support an expanding healthcare system.
The mission, held from August 31 to September 4 under the HealthNext Guyana project, was implemented by Expertise France in partnership with the Ministry of Health and focused on health technology management, including the maintenance, servicing and lifecycle management of medical equipment.
During their visit, the experts toured health facilities and held discussions with Ministry of Health officials, biomedical personnel and representatives of the University of Guyana to assess existing capabilities and identify areas where additional training and institutional support are needed.
A key component of the mission was a two-day working session on September 3 and 4, which brought together biomedical maintenance personnel from Georgetown, Region Three and Region Five.
The sessions provided an opportunity for technicians to share experiences, discuss challenges encountered in maintaining medical equipment and identify opportunities for further training to strengthen the delivery of biomedical services.
The emphasis on equipment management comes as Guyana undertakes a major expansion of its health infrastructure, with new and upgraded hospitals and increasingly sophisticated diagnostic and treatment equipment being introduced across the country. HealthNext is intended to help ensure that the human and institutional capacity required to operate and maintain those investments develops alongside the infrastructure.
The broader Guyana HealthNext: Training, Research and Development project is funded by the European Union and implemented by Expertise France from 2026 to 2028. The initiative has a budget of approximately €3.9 million and forms part of wider European support for Guyana’s health-sector development.
HealthNext has three principal areas of focus: strengthening specialised healthcare, improving health technology management and biomedical maintenance, and developing clinical and academic research capacity.
The project also seeks to expand training opportunities for doctors, nurses and hospital administrators, strengthen existing clinical training programmes and support the development of specialised services, including oncology and organ transplantation.
The organ transplantation component is being advanced separately through an EU-funded partnership involving the Donation and Transplantation Institute, the Ministry of Health, the Guyana Human Organ and Tissue Transplant Agency and other regional and international partners. The initiative is aimed at establishing a sustainable national organ donation and transplantation system.
For biomedical services specifically, the French mission highlighted the importance of looking beyond the acquisition of medical equipment to its entire lifecycle—from procurement and installation to maintenance, spare parts, technical skills and eventual replacement. Expertise France has identified stronger governance, equipment lifecycle management, maintenance systems and biomedical training as key elements of the HealthNext programme.
The initiative is being implemented against the backdrop of significant investment in Guyana’s health sector, including the construction and modernisation of hospitals and efforts to expand specialised care.