More persons need to be trained as healthcare providers

─ Health ministry will work with those who do not meet the entry requirements

The Ministry of Health is looking to train more nurses and other healthcare professionals, as it seeks to drastically improve the healthcare system in Guyana.

Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, speaking at a recent sod-turning exercise for the new $6.6 billion hospital in Region Five, noted that more persons need to be trained from the region to adequately staff the facility when it is completed.

“Region Five needs quite a lot of nurses and we want you to come on board, identify those young persons who are interested and we will train them, and when we’re finished training you and you pass the exam, we have a job for you,” Dr. Anthony stated.

While noting that the general requirement is five CSEC passes including English and Mathematics, the health minister said, “There is no barrier to education, if you want to become a nurse and you have the aptitude, you have a couple of subjects, we will work with you to bring you into the system.

“We don’t want to compromise our entry requirement, but what we will do once we identify people with these gaps, is that we will bring you in, we will make sure that through the Ministry of Public Service that we can provide Math and English.”

The ministry is aiming to train at least 1,000 nurses annually through the introduction of online training.

“So, people can study nursing at home and when you are ready to do the practical component you will come into a simulation centre in your region,” the minister underscored.

Primary healthcare has been brought into focus over the last few years and the ministry has identified 216 services that should be provided at all primary healthcare facilities such as health centres and posts.

“Right now, we are working to ensure that we equip each of these health centres with the right type of equipment, with the right type of diagnostics kits so that we will be able to provide these types of interventions,” the health minister pointed out.

This also comes with the recognition that a lot more people need to be trained.

“One of the things that we have been doing is working to expand training so that we can have more pharmacists, more pharmacy assistants, we want to have more laboratory technicians, x-ray technicians, CT Scan technicians, ultrasound technicians, and so forth,” Minister Anthony added.