Millions committed to expand East Coast Dialysis Centre

May 20, 2014 News

– various health services to be offered

A pledge of $100 million has been made to the Doobay Medical Centre to facilitate expansion of the Annandale East Coast Demerara dialysis facility. This development was confirmed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Centre, Mr Vickram Oditt.

CEO of the Doobay Dialysis Centre, Mr Vickram Oditt

Oditt, during an interview with this publication recently, said that the commitment was made by a prominent local business family who are keen on assisting the not-for-profit Centre in its expansion plans. “At the right time the announcement will be made of who this family is; perhaps when the funds are being handed over,” said the CEO.
With forthcoming financial backing it is anticipated that the existing Dialysis Centre will be expanded into a cardio-vascular and renal centre.
The vision, according to Oditt, is to have a two-storey medical facility. “It should be quite large, perhaps the largest among the private hospitals in Guyana and we will be able to cater to an increased number of renal patients and offer an expanded renal service, among other services,” said Oditt.
The introduction of yet another privately-owned hospital, according to President of the Dialysis Centre, Dr. Budhendra Doobay, is intended to offer services that are affordable even to the less fortunate.
Moreover, he noted that the expanded facility will operate on the same principal as the Dialysis Centre whereby persons will not be refused attention even if they are unable to pay. “I have heard that if a person doesn’t have around $2 million he/she cannot have certain operations here in Guyana…certain heart operations, for instance, are very expensive for poor people; if you have the money your family can pay it and of course you can get it done but if you don’t have it, it can’t be done,” Dr. Doobay observed.
He noted that in light of the fact that many persons’ lives were prolonged because of the establishment of the Dialysis Centre it is expected that even more will be spared an early demise too with the institution of a full-fledge hospital.
“I’m hoping that with the colleagues and friends I have in Canada that I can coerce them to come and work here for a week or two to do things like open-heart surgeries…This would be strictly non-profit business; none of us will be paid but all patients will be attended to because we would like an opportunity for them to get better,” said Dr. Doobay.
Dr. Doobay, a Guyanese by birth, is a Cardiovascular Surgeon who has been residing in Canada for a number of years. He is the founder of the Dialysis Centre which has been endorsed by the local Ministry of Health.
In addition to providing heart operations and continued dialysis, Dr. Doobay said that once implemented, the expanded facility will also cater to persons with strokes and even offer rehabilitation services.

Dr Budhendra Doobay

With rehab services being offered, patients, such as those inflicted with strokes, can have a chance of being restored through intensive physiotherapy. “Some young people get stroke; it is not only old people who get it anymore…but it is the young people who are the ones we will concentrate more on to help them get back to some level of normalcy,” said Dr. Doobay.
According to him a rehab centre of sorts is important in any country, not only for patients suffering from strokes but also for those who would have suffered other complications such as heart attacks.
Already some equipment for the proposed expanded Centre has been accumulated. The centre is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2016.