Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 10, 2015 News
– to offer postgraduate training to local physicians
The National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) of the Ministry of Public Health is poised for some much needed capacity building. This undertaking will be made possible through bilateral South-South cooperation coordinated by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Guyana and Argentina respectively.
Support in this regard is slated to commence as early as next week.
This development was announced yesterday at a press conference convened in the Office of Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton. Present were Argentina Ambassador to Guyana, Luis A. Martino; and the Health Ministry’s Director of Standards and Technical Services with responsibility for the NBTS, Dr. Julian Amsterdam.
Even as he responded to a question of the extent of the support that will be offered to Guyana, Ambassador Martino disclosed that under consideration is a three-year strategic cooperation between the two countries that will cater to the process of capacity building at NBTS.
The first stage of the cooperation will commence on Sunday with the arrival of two doctors – Dr. Ana Del Pozo, who has a strong background in the blood services sector; and Dr. Sebastian Oknaian, an expert in quality control in blood transfusion.
The visiting doctors will offer their expertise not only at the Georgetown Public Hospital but also at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, and the Linden Hospital Complex to match the strategic objectives that have been set out by the Public Health Ministry.
The doctors are expected to return in November when they will seek to follow up on the learning process initiated during the first visit.
According to Ambassador Martino, “In 2016 we contemplate a trip of Guyanese specialists— technologists and physicians— to Argentina. We expect between two and four people to come to Argentina to continue with the capacity building.”
The collaboration, according to Dr. Amsterdam, is especially crucial if Guyana is to offer services that are on par with those offered by first world countries. Among the services of paramount importance he stressed the need for the availability of safe blood.
“Argentina is definitely playing an important part in ensuring that we maintain the momentum that we have started by having the experts,” said Dr. Amsterdam who claimed to have worked closely with Dr. Del Pozo who is recognized by the Pan American Health Organisation and has tremendous expertise in blood banking.
“We have an opportunity to improve our experience and extend our competencies in the various areas as it relates to blood banking,” said Dr. Amsterdam as he also made reference to Dr. Oknaian’s support as equally crucial as it relates to improving the local health sector’s blood banking capabilities.
The NBTS will in the coming week spearhead activities that will complement the capacity building efforts offered by the Argentine experts.
Minister Norton lauded the health support through the South-South collaboration. Yesterday he disclosed that local general medical practitioners will also now be eligible for postgraduate programmes.
According to him, a good thing about the offer of such fellowships is, “We practically have doctors ready to take up these offers because they are Spanish-speaking physicians who were Cuban-trained. They can leave almost immediately for postgraduate training.”
But Minister Norton is hopeful that the postgraduate programme would not be limited to those related to haematology. He anticipates that it will eventually include areas such as General Surgery, Internal Medicine and Gynecology and Obstetrics. Ambassador Martino also mentioned the possibility of support in paediatric care also being eventually extended to Guyana.
“It is good news for physicians who are looking for the possibility of doing postgraduate training and we can assure them that we were guaranteed by the Ambassador here from Argentina, that they will make postgraduate training available to our physicians and I am delighted and heartened by this,” added Minister Norton.
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