Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 18, 2010 News
– Dr Ramsaran
There will be no tolerance for those doctors whose training was funded by Government and are now unwilling to serve in hinterland and other far-flung areas across the country.
Minister within the Health Ministry, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, issued this warning recently even as he related that dispatching doctors, particularly those trained in Cuba, across the country is part of government’s vision to expand quality and equitable health service.
However, it has been quite a challenge to dispatch some doctors to far flung areas, Dr Ramsaran disclosed. In fact, he noted that it has been observed that a few of these physicians upon their return become delinquent and do not want to serve. “They don’t want to serve where the people need them. They want to feather their own nests and stick on like barnacles only here in Georgetown. They think they have all rights and no duties but we are going to root them out,” the Minister said, while noting that the Ministry has already begun to address the situation.
The importance of serving, the Minister said, will be emphasised in the contract these doctors make with the government and even during the induction seminar which is usually held prior to their departure to Cuba. According to Dr Ramsaran, it is expected that having been trained, these doctors will willingly serve in the regions they came from or wherever the Government sends them. Based on the contract, doctors returning from Cuba are slated to serve the government for a minimum of five years.
However, when the programme had initially started some doctors were allowed a shorter period to serve because of certain contractual arrangements with the Ministry, Dr Ramsaran disclosed. In fact, at one time, it was only top performers of top city schools that were eligible for Cuban scholarships to undertake the medical programme in Cuba.
Guyana has for more than a decade shared bilateral relations with Cuba, but according to Dr Ramsaran it was only after intense discussions fostered by President Bharrat Jagdeo in 2006 that students from across the country were able to access scholarships in several fields. However, the majority of scholarships given out even today are in the area of medicine, Dr Ramsaran divulged. This, he said, is based on the fact that Cuba is recognised as a very good health care provider of clinical services and a good provider of health education training. “Medical students used to be trained in small batches but we realised that if we needed to spread out quality service to the various regions we didn’t have the capacity in terms of the modern hospital, the equipment and the health teams….So we needed help while we created capacity.”
So instead of training just a handful of doctors at a time, Dr Ramsaran disclosed that a mutual agreement was made between Guyana and Cuba to increase the amount of students training in the field of medicine at any one time. This move, which was first engaged in 2006, has been regarded as a “qualitative, quantum leap” by the Health Minister.
With the assistance of Cuban doctors in the local public health system, the Ministry of Health has over the years been able to train scores of physicians who are already helping to boost the delivery of health care.
The need for added human resources, according to Dr Ramsaran, is required as government has over the years increased the infrastructural capacity which will soon be manned by local experts. Among these he listed the Diagnostic Centres at Suddie, Leonora, Diamond and Mahaicony along with new facilities at Lethem, Linden and Mabaruma.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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