Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy says despite the fire that destroyed the ministry and its records work continues unabated and it expects to provide medical assistance for over 300 persons this year.
In a press release the minister said since the fire over 100 persons have applied for assistance through its Medical Assistance Pro-gramme and most of those applications have already been processed.
He said the programme aims at helping needy persons to access treatment and already $100M has been spent. Ramsammy said the ministry expects to spend about $150M in medical assistance this year.
The minister also said last year the programme provided more than $93M for about 300 persons who needed to access paid medical services locally and abroad. Some of the services which persons can access locally include cardiac surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, dialysis, hip and joint replacement surgery and MRI and CT scans which can be done at the Mercy and Woodlands hospitals. Ramsammy said some of these services are provided free of cost at the Georgetown Public Hospital, along with kidney transplants and neurosurgeries.
According to the release six kidney transplants have already been done at the hospital and two more have been planned for next month.
The minister said plans are also in train to increase the number of medical services that can be accessed freely at the public hospital. This includes introducing CT scans at the public hospital and providing a paid service for about 30% of the current cost locally and about 10% less the cost in Trinidad. “We expect that CIOG and another dialysis service would be introduced in Guyana by the middle and the end of next year and these new services would provide dialysis at about half of the present cost,” the minister said. The CIOG service is expected to cost about US$100 and another promised dialysis treatment programme has set its cost at US$90 per treatment.
Ramsammy also said next year a dental laboratory service will be introduced at the Cheddi Jagan Dental Centre which will provide additional services such as providing dentures, at a nominal cost. Plans are also in train to offer paediatric cardiac clinics and create a database of children who need heart surgeries. Arrangements will be made with surgeons in India and Cuba to perform the said operations, in addition to doing some operations locally.
The minister also extended gratitude to his staff for their commitment to getting the job done under the circumstances.
