I am proud of my country; for me there is no country in the world that I would rather belong to. This week, HE President Irfaan Ali sworn in ten new puisne judges, eight of whom are female judges. Not so long ago, Janet Jagan, Guyana’s first female President, appointed Desiree Bernard as Guyana’s first female chancellor and she became the first female judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The naysayers tried to “diss” the appointment by deeming it a wholly racist appointment, dominated by Guyanese of East Indian origin. Those few who jumped on that bandwagon were selling a totally fake story since there were five persons of East Indian and five persons of African origins. The swearing in was another example of Guyana ensuring equal rights of women, further shattering the glass-ceiling. This column extend my congratulations to all the new judges and wish them well in their service to our beautiful country.
Speaking of service to our country, this week, I start a new journey. I am curtailing work I have been doing since August 2020 at the Ministry of Health, although I am not totally disconnecting. I will still be available to support the MOH and the health workers in any way that I could. But I am not ending service to our country and our people.
I have answered the call of our government to serve as Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Geneva and to multiple multilateral organizations in Switzerland and several other countries. I will also serve as Ambassador to Switzerland and to other European countries.
I am grateful to President Irfaan Ali and the GoG for honoring me and giving me the privilege to serve our country in such prestigious assignments. I can only assure President Ali and our people that I will serve with the same eagerness, vibrancy, diligence and competence that I have become known for during my service in Guyana over several decades. As always, promoting our country and working to ensure that our people benefit optimally are my priority.
As I move on to a new set of assignments outside of Guyana, I want to express my gratitude to colleagues, past and present. For decades, I have had the very good fortune to work with individuals who helped create a milieu that was stimulating, empowering and rewarding.
I am especially grateful to those around me everyday who ensured that I was able to focus on the critical matters. Every person in this stimulating and rewarding milieu played a part, each as important as the others, whether they occupied a senior position or helped to ensure we have a clean environment to work. Those who are employed at the lowest level proved to be as important as those who were employed at the highest levels. We worked in all my assignments as a TEAM. I am profoundly grateful.
I am proud to have served in the many capacities that I have served in Guyana. I have been proud to tell our stories because, in spite of many challenges and disappointments, I believe that, overall, we served with distinction. While we continue to face challenges and while each day we have disappointed people, I believe as public servants we have served our country and our people with distinction. I am hopeful that in my new assignments we will continue to serve with distinction.
Our amazing country has positioned itself as a leader in food, climate and environmental and energy security. As small as we are, we have become a critical part of the equation to secure global food security, global climate and environmental security and energy security. We have shown that the right policies and with world-class public servants, not only can we help to achieve food, climate and environmental and energy security, but that we can grow our economy at a sustained unprecedented rate.
Guyana has become a model country for and a rare country in which carbon credit sales have become a meaningful part of our economy. While it is foolish not to recognize the significance of oil and gas in the unprecedented growth of our GDP, we must not lose sight of the government’s aggressive policy directions to achieve a diversified economy. Agriculture was the mainstay of Guyana’s economy in the colonial days and maintained this position post-independence. Now post-oil and gas, agriculture has repositioned itself to remain a foundation of the economy. With new crops and better production of the old crops, Guyana is poised to show the world that agriculture remains a viable leader of an economy. Long after oil and gas, agriculture will continue to be Guyana’s mainstay in the economy.
I will continue to engage in various activities I have been involved in locally, although I now must relinquish responsibilities in a number of projects and in the many everyday activities I was engaged in at the MOH. It has been an exhilarating experience as we transform the health sector of Guyana. I am eternally blessed that I was able to contribute in meaningful ways to the transformative agenda that the President Irfaan Ali PPP Government has pursued since August 2020.
In keeping with the transformative agenda, the physical infrastructure of the health sector, as it were in August 2020, clearly had to undergo massive transformation. Many of the hospital buildings, even if they were in reasonably good physical condition, were no longer appropriate for the delivery of modern healthcare, with a hefty emphasis on technology. Outside of the physical state of the buildings, the MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) infrastructure in most of the hospitals required total replacement.
There became the need, therefore, to consider construction of new hospitals to replace some of the old hospitals.
There was also the question of hospitals that had to be established in certain under-served areas, in terms of hospital service. Therefore, the Irfaan Ali-led PPP Government had to consider building new hospitals, adding to the list of existing hospitals.
One of the priorities that the new government readily and aggressively pursued was the need for a number of specialized hospitals, such as a pediatric and maternal hospital (mother and child hospital). But there are other specialized services that the government recognized must be advanced, such as cardiology, oncology, specialized orthopedics. The policy adopted by the new government in August 2020 was that while a specialized hospital could be developed for pediatrics and maternity, and oncology, some of the services could be Centers of Excellence within General Hospitals around the country.
The new Government, like all PPP governments before, emphasized its policy directive that primary healthcare must remain as the core of the health sector. This included an overhaul of the primary healthcare infrastructure. In this regard, while the government instructed RDCs to examine establishing new health posts and health centers in under-served areas, it also embarked on an aggressive upgrading of the physical infrastructure of the existing health posts and health centers.
Six new Regional Hospitals at Lima, DeKenderen, Diamond, Enmore, Bath and #75 should be completed by November 2024. These hospitals will provide 30 additional critical care (ICU and NICU) beds and 18 new operating theatres. These hospitals will add 450 new in-patent beds to existing hospital-bed capacity in the country. At the same time, five regional hospitals are being replaced by new hospitals in Moruka, Kamarang, Bartica, Kato and Lethem. All these hospitals will be completed by early 2026. All 11 of these hospitals will include enhanced diagnostic equipment and capability, including CTs. Plan are in place for upgrading Linden Regional Hospital and to replace the West Demerara Regional Hospital, with contracts expected by 2025. In the meanwhile, the transformation of the New Amsterdam Hospital has begun with the replacement of the present hospital with a new Level 5 Hospital that will cater for cardiology services, including stents, oncology services and will include CTs and MRI services. This new 5-story building will be completed by end of 2026. Guyana’s first specialized hospital will be the Pediatric and Maternal Hospital in Ogle. This should be completed by end of 2025. Plans are in place for a specialized oncology center. Presently discussion are taking place.
In the meanwhile certain other things must happen. While a new GPHC must replace the present one, with many centers of excellence, the present hospital must have an additional, more advanced CT, an MRI and a new Cath Lab to expand the cardiology services. The present GPHC must have an advanced level of oncology services. These will all be in place by end of 2024. In addition, the existing New Amsterdam Hospital must have a new CT and must be equipped with advanced laparoscopic equipment. The President has instructed that this must happen before the end of the 3rd quarter of 2024.
I was happy to be a part of this transformation and will continue to be engaged as far as is possible.
It is exciting times in our country. Yes, it is still a work-in-progress. But right in front of our eyes, we can already see the transformation. As a child I dreamt of getting a bicycle; the children of today dream about fancy cars and nice homes, of vacation in fancy places.
I will represent our country with vigor and ensure that the same excitement that pervades our country is seen in our representation abroad. I will ensure that people will want to come and visit, want to come and invest, want to come and participate in the story of Guyana.
I have confidence that our leaders, like President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo, Prime Minister Mark Philips and the cabinet, will succeed in establishing Guyana, a small country, as a global leader. I have great confidence that our people will come to understand and see what progress and prosperity look like.
As I leave to take up my new post far away from Guyana, rest assure that Guyana and my sisters and brothers will be in my thought every second of the day. I look forward to come home and continue working for our country, our Eldorado.