A total of $51.7 billion, representing 15% of the 2020 emergency budget, will be allocated to the health sector this year.
Of the total, $11 billion is to be allocated to Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) and $14.3 billion to the procurement of drugs and medical supplies.
Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill on Wednesday during his budget speech told the National Assembly that when the new PPP/C government inherited the health ministry, basic public health programmes were neglected. “These chronic shortages, compounded with the mismanagement of the health care system, have compromised the care for thousands of Guyanese.”
He declared that the 2020 budget will provide for the purchase of adequate drugs and medical supplies along with fixing infrastructural defects at various facilities in the country and further improve the quality of health care provided to the Guyanese populace.
According to Edghill, $11 billion has been budgeted for the Georgetown Public Hospital as he observed that there are issues at the facility that need to be addressed urgently. “The situation at GPHC requires aggressive attention. Our only national referral hospital has been suffering from issues of overcrowding and insufficient infection prevention and control standards for quite some time,” he said.
Of the $11 billion, $15 million has been budgeted to continue the extension of the accident and emergency and medical outpatient departments at the hospital while another $20 million was budgeted to commence the design of a four-storied building to have the pharmacy and medical records services relocated and also to create on-call accommodation for medical personnel. “Overall, we have budgeted $11 billion for GPHC, for 2020, which includes $2.5 billion for drugs and medical supplies. The overall budgeted amount represents $1.4 billion more than was expended for the GPHC in 2019,” Edghill noted.
With $14.3 billion budgeted for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies, Edghill informed that action to facilitate the procurement of emergency supplies of drugs and medical supplies are underway to the tune of $3.2 billion.
He mentioned that the government is already looking at medium and long term projects within the country’s health sector, inclusive of the completion of “SMART Hospital” initiatives at Diamond, Paramakatoi, Mabaruma, Leonora and Lethem. Additionally he stated that funding has been allocated for the “redevelopment” of the West Demerara, Suddie, and Bartica hospitals, even as discussions are underway to have a national electronic patient information system operationalised.
Further, he said $143.3 million has been budgeted for HIV-related drugs and medical supplies as he stated that the current global pandemic has challenged the country’s National AIDS Programme, which has only so far tested 6,659 persons between January and June out of the annual target of 70,000. Edghill indicated that the country suffered a “stock out” of the HIV Determine rapid test kits, which led the National Public Health Reference Laboratory to restrict HIV testing to critical or emergency cases along with priority target groups.
Some $17 million has been budgeted to start the construction of a cold storage bond in Region Six which will ensure the country is able to maintain a sufficient supply of vaccines. On that note he mentioned that since the onset of the pandemic, the ministry has faced challenges with its immunization programmes. However, they will commence work to launch outreaches and house-to-house immunization activities in an attempt to ensure that vaccination coverage does not decline significantly.
The family health care programme will also focus on outreaches as the programme has prioritized the conduct of mobile family planning and other obstetrics outreaches for the remainder of 2020. “Both are critical, as unplanned pregnancies are expected to increase, given the restrictions to movement due to COVID-19. Expectant mothers are also likely to not make regular clinic visits,” he said.
Another outreach which will be undertaken is the distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets as its procurement is expected to commence this year. He noted that the malaria control programme has also seen challenges as a result of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “As such, timely data gathering and reporting have adversely affected the performance of this programme,” he added.
