The Leonora hospital and treatment centre, West Coast Demerara, is expected to open within the next three weeks and most of the 14 newly-arrived Cuban medical practitioners will serve there, according to a release from GINA.
And on Tuesday Minister within the Ministry of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran welcomed the medical professionals who include doctors, surgeons, nurses and technicians. Another batch of 14 is expected to arrive by Sunday, GINA stated.
The Leonora Centre is one of four such institutions earmarked for construction under an agreement between the Governments of Cuba and Guyana. The others are the diagnostic and treatment centres at Suddie in Region Two and Mahaicony in Region Five, and the Diamond, East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital in Region Four.
An ophthalmology centre at Port Mourant is also part of the agreement, GINA said, and construction is far advanced on the state-of-the-art institution which will cater for patients from Guyana and neighbouring countries.
Both the Suddie and the Mahaicony facilities are expected to come on stream in the near future, according to GINA.
The Diamond, East Bank Demerara Hospital was opened on October 12, 2007 with 28 Cuban health care providers and Guyanese support staff. Between October and January the hospital was able to provide services to over 13,000 patients.
The Diamond facility is aimed at accommodating persons along the East Bank Demerara corridor and obviates the need for patients to travel to Georgetown to seek medical attention. And the Leonora Centre will provide similar services as the Diamond institution.
Minister Ramsaran said that with the new Leonora Centre and inputs from the Cuban doctors, residents will be able to receive better services, especially asthmatic and pediatric patients who would have had to travel to the Georgetown Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Suddie Hospital will also be receiving more assistance as three of the Cuban doctors will be stationed there to supplement the human resource capacity.
These doctors and technicians, GINA said, will be laying the foundation for Guyanese to take over throughout the next five years since it is expected that several hundreds of local students who are being trained in Cuba will be returning by 2011.
At present 500 students are being trained in Cuba and this year 69 students are expected to return to offer their services.
On their return they will undergo training for a few more months under the guidance of the Cuban medical personnel before completing their degrees.
