Guyana’s health coverage laudable despite staff shortages

Guyana’s health coverage laudable despite staff shortages – Deputy CMO

Dec 14, 2018 News

On a list of seven countries, Guyana ties with Suriname to claim third place when it comes to the coverage of essential health services. This is according to World Health Organisation indicators released by the Ministry of Public Health through its Deputy Chief Medical Officer [CMO], Dr. Karen Gorden-Boyle.
The list was released in time for Universal Health Day 2018, which was observed on Wednesday, features Cuba as the country leading the way in the delivery of essential health services with a 78 percent coverage.
Following closely is Trinidad with a 75 percent coverage and Guyana and Suriname tying at 68 percent coverage.
Also on the list are Russia with 63 percent coverage, and Haiti and Jamaica tying with 60 percent coverage.
The list also places Guyana in fourth place with its 95 percent DPT vaccination coverage. Again leading the way in this category is Cuba with 99 percent DPT coverage, followed by Russia with 97 percent, Trinidad with 96, Haiti and Jamaica with 91 percent and Suriname with 89 percent.
In the respective countries the percentage coverage of people successfully treated for tuberculosis translates to Cuba 71 percent, Suriname 62 percent, Russia 60 percent, Trinidad 56 percent, Guyana 55 percent, and Haiti and Jamaica each recording 14 percent.
Based on the data released Guyana ties with Suriname and Russia at 73 percent when the average coverage is taken into consideration. These countries are of course second to Cuba with its 83 percent average coverage rate.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Karen Gordon-Boyle.

Catering to its coverage, Guyana is said to have 2.1 physicians per 10,000 population trailing behind the listed countries. In Cuba the physicians per 10,000 population amounts to 75 followed by Russia’s 40, Trinidad’s 18, Suriname’s eight, Jamaica’s 4.7 and Haiti’s 3.9.
But it is no surprise, Dr. Gordon-Boyle noted, that Cuba, which is known to have one of the world’s best primary health care systems, ranks above the rest.
She, however, revealed that what might be surprising is the fact that Guyana has managed to have similar coverage to countries like Russia and Suriname.
“A look at our depleted health workforce helps to give a greater appreciation of the huge accomplishments Guyana continues to make with patient outcomes despite us having 20 times less physicians than Russia and four times less than Suriname,” Dr. Gordon-Boyle asserted.
She added, “When we look at nurses for the same two countries, Russia had 17 times more nurses and Suriname 10 times more than Guyana. Additionally, our low population density especially in the hinterland means that the cost to provide some semblance of quality health services to these remote populations is often in excess of 10 times the cost to provide the same level of care in a township or on the coast of Guyana.”
But the Deputy CMO admitted that there is room for improvement. Moreover, she asserted that the recent piloting of electronic medical records, intensified training of community health workers and medic for deployment into the hinterland locations are but some of the measures being taken to address the human resource shortages across every region.
She noted that in order to improve the quality of health services and to fulfil its commitment to provide services that are accessible, affordable, acceptable and of a high quality.
“We must have wider stakeholder involvement through formalised partnerships,” said Dr. Gordon-Boyle as she added, “radical changes are needed to attract and retain the quality and quantity of health personnel required to meet the needs in the remotest parts of Guyana.”
In this regard, the Deputy CMO said that the Ministry is lobbying for differentiated allowances especially for health personnel who are required to be relocated to the hinterland far away from their family and social support networks.

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