Medicines, oxygen, PPEs for ‘COVID’ Hospital receives $1.1B from Budget 2022

$1.1B will be spent to procure medicine, oxygen and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at the
Infectious Diseases Hospital, Lilliendaal Greater Georgetown.
The health ministry catered for this sum drugs and medical supplies programme which was
allocated some $4.1B.  Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, during the national budget estimates
on Thursday explained that the sums allocated for the ‘COVID’ Hospital will not only cater for
oxygen, but other medications being used to treat patients, including remdesivir and baricitinib.
Dr. Anthony revealed to the house that the ministry intends to procure other medications once
they become available.  “Our intention is to procure paxlovid once it becomes available on the
market, but unfortunately the supply is quite limited and a lot of that is being used in the United
States and some of the European countries, so access to it is quite limited,” he said.
Dr. Anthony noted that the government is trying to source the Merck drug ‘Molnupiravir’. “We
have made some headways with that and recently, a local company has registered Molnupiravir
in Guyana and hopefully they will be able to supply that particular drug,” minister Anthony said.
He disclosed that resources have been set aside under another programme to purchase vaccines
for children ages five to 11 once they become available.
The health minister noted that the sum of $776M was set aside for the National Public Reference
Laboratory. Dr. Anthony said that a large amount of that sum will be used to purchase reagents
needed for PCR testing. He said that $523M will also go towards the health emergency operating
centre, which is the coordinating unit for the COVID response.
Further, an allocation of $931M was made for National AIDS Programme. This, he said will
cater for the procurement of a new algorithm for patients. “We will be switching some of the
older ARVs that we were using and we have a new algorithm that we will be using for our
patients and this involves new drugs and they are a little bit more costly,” the minister said.
Minister Anthony noted that $328M was approved for the development of a malaria lab and a
number of other malaria related programmes, while $208M was allocated for Tuberculosis (TB)
and $173M for the elimination of Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy.
Some $65M will also be spent on filaria and leishmaniasis drugs; $30M for medicines for
dengue; and $16M for veterinary public health.nThe health minister revealed that this year, the
sums allocated for drugs and medical supplies under disease control of the ministry saw an
increase from $3.8B last year to $4.1B this year. An additional sum was allocated to this
programme through a supplementary budget.
Meanwhile, Opposition M.P, Karen Cummings questioned whether the sum allocated this year
will be adequate to provide the relevant drugs needed to treat persons. Dr. Anthony in response,
said the sums are adequate, noting that provisions are made under other programmes to procure
reagents which can be considered medical supplies.