Latest update March 26th, 2026 7:55 AM
National rehab center, ambulance authority & cancer hospital on cards for Guyana – Health Minister
Kaieteur News- Guyana will benefit from a national rehabilitation centre for stroke patients, a national ambulance authority and a cancer hospital, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony announced on Friday.
The minister was at the time speaking at the sod-turning ceremony for the $708 million Industry Polyclinic. He said that the projects form part of the government’s commitment to transforming the local health sector.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony
“In the next couple of years, we will also be building a cancer hospital, or an oncology hospital, and that too, is going to change how people get care in Guyana,” Dr. Anthony said while noting that certain categories of care are unavailable in Guyana.
“And we want to change that, so the new cancer hospital would be one where we would have all the diagnostic facilities, we will also have all the different types of treatment modalities for cancer,” he stated.
According to the minister, the Government of Guyana is working with Mount Sinai out of New York to have the cancer hospital developed. He shared that already there is a blueprint of what the hospital would look like and the services that will be offered.
“While we are doing that, we also recognize that there is a challenge with persons who are hypertensive. Some of them might get complications that ended up with a stroke and so we are also working to build a national rehab center for stroke patients,” Dr. Anthony said.
“And so, maybe next two years or so, you would see that come to fruition. So, when we talk about a world class health care, we’re not paying lip service to this, what we are doing is investing. The government is investing to make sure that we can develop these types of facilities,” he added.
Revealing other plans for the health sector, the minister stated that they have been working to retrofit the COVID-19 Hospital which is located at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
He explained that there is a section of that hospital that they are now working to retrofit to make it into the center for a national ambulance authority.
“From there you can have ambulances being dispatched. You’ll have a full command centre, and whether it’s ambulances on land or in river, and we are working also to be able to call for airplanes that can go out to do the medevac. We would also have our telemedicine center connected there, because right now we have 81 locations where we are at, and in the next couple of years, that would be increased to 200 interior locations,” he briefed.
In terms of emergency responses, the minister said that right now they are working on the drone technology, “where if you need specialized meds, let’s say to go to a site that will be able to fly it to that site so that persons can have access. We have tested one of the drones, it can fly for 150 kilometers, and that is something that in the near future we’ll be putting to use. The cargo hold for that particular drone is 22 pounds. So, it can take a lot of things, and this is one way to go where we are able to upgrade and modernize our health system,” he told attendees at the sod-turning event.
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