The government has invested approximately $85.2 billion in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) over the last five years, supporting major improvements in infrastructure, medical equipment, staffing and training.
Chief Executive Officer of GPHC, Dr Robbie Rambarran, made this disclosure during the programme Starting Point, which aired on Saturday. He outlined how the investments have strengthened the country’s premier public healthcare institution.
According to Dr Rambarran, a significant portion of the funding has gone towards human resources, with the hospital’s monthly payroll now standing at approximately $1 billion.
GPHC currently employs more than 2,500 staff members, including highly trained and specialised healthcare professionals.
He, however, revealed that despite the expansion, the institution continues to face staffing shortages in some areas, with the hospital at more than 60 per cent of its nursing capacity so far.
He explained that investments have also been directed towards training, with 21 postgraduate programmes currently being offered through collaborations with the University of Guyana (UG) and several international universities.
These help to equip doctors and nurses with specialised skills needed to meet the growing healthcare demands of the population.
“So we are partnering, training our staff heavily so that they can meet the needs of our people in specialised care, and also investing in a lot of state-of-the-art equipment. There’s equipment that we have at Georgetown Hospital that is not even in the Caribbean”, Dr Rambarran stated.
He said the investments have equipped healthcare workers with the tools needed to provide improved services, while efforts are continuing to strengthen the human resource capacity required to deliver quality healthcare to patients.