The Ministry of Health is working to increase human resources throughout the health sector in Guyana and according to Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Adviser to the Minister, over 300 persons will graduate as pharmacy assistants next year.
The Health Services of Region Six on Saturday launched the Pharmacy Assistant Training Programme. Previously the programme was being done in Georgetown and small numbers of persons were selected from each region to train in the city. However, the Ministry of Health has made a major change allowing persons to be trained and stationed within their home region.
According to Dr Ramsammy, initially, they were planning to select thirty persons from the 153 applications received. However, eventually, 40 persons were chosen to be trained.
The persons selected are from various parts of Region Six including Orealla and Barakara. After being fully trained these persons are expected to boost the regional pharmacies as currently there are only about 16 such assistants in Region Six.
Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, who delivered remarks at the launch said: “Pharmacy Assistants are very needed in helping us to deliver health care, the region I think has just 16 and what we want to do is to increase that so that every health facility would eventually have somebody that can work there.”
Anthony told the persons selected for training that he believes this programme would whet their appetite to learn more.
“While we are training you and you are going to start working in this area we want you to start thinking about a career and pathway how to further develop yourself”, he said.
According to the Minister, they will soon create a booklet outlining the programmes being offered by the ministry. He said that at a minimum there are 20 programmes being offered.
Meanwhile, touching on the expansion currently ongoing within the health sector, Anthony said this year they have started construction of seven new hospitals countrywide.
He said the new hospital being constructed in Region Six will be located in Skeldon, Upper Corentyne, and it will be equipped with 75 inpatient beds, three operating theatres – two main and one minor, a high-tech imaging suite and a modern laboratory.
“So if we are expanding the health sector in this way we need to have people who are going to work there… And that’s why we are on this drive to train more people and get more people properly qualified so they can enter the health sector”, he said.
“We are starting the Registered Nursing Programme and we are putting that online and once we get that up and running and we learn how to do it properly then all these other programmes that we have our intention is to migrate them online”, he disclosed.
Courses have also been developed on how to teach people to administer services and manage the various health facilities. “The administrative programme has already started and we currently have 25 persons who are enrolled”, he said.
The nine-month programme will be done through York University “and they will help us to administrate some of the current facilities…” He said they plan to continue this programme for a couple of years and as such those persons enrolled in the pharmacy assistant programme can eventually join if they see themselves in leadership roles in the future.
Anthony said that one of the main complaints they are receiving is that when persons visit the pharmacies at the health facilities, staff are not diligent and at times instead of serving the public they are on their phones.
“That is something we have to change and we do not want a new set of people coming into the system having bad attitudes…we have been emphasizing this so that we train you and you become a catalyst for change in the system”, he stressed.
Meanwhile, Region Six Health Officer, Dr Vishalya Sharma on Saturday told Stabroek News that 55 persons were trained as part of the regional Home Based Care Programme. She said since the relaunch of the programme earlier this year they have visited 1960 homes within the region.
On Saturday, the home-based care team also received a bus costing approximately $3.6m to boost the services they offer.
