EU Mission to visit Guyana in June to explore opportunities in health- Minister Anthony

Mar 18, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News- Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony on Saturday announced that in June, a European Union (EU) Mission will be visiting Guyana to explore a number of opportunities with special attention being placed on the health sector.

The health minister made the disclosure during the launch of the government’s Universal Healthcare Voucher Programme which was held at the Arthur Chung Conference Center.

During his address, the minister said that with the vision of providing a world-class healthcare system for all Guyanese, the country has been partnering with a number of international institutions and countries to meet its goal.

“We of course have been working with a number of partners so while we have a plan of what we want to do in the Ministry of Health, for the last couple of years and going into the next five years, we have mapped out a strategy of where we want to go and we also realize that we can do this with a lot of partnerships,” he stated.

Speaking of the partnerships Guyana has embarked on, Dr. Anthony said that the country has a good partnership with the EU and at a recent Heads of Government meeting in Barbados, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed among Guyana, Barbados and the EU for collaboration.

“The EU is going to fund this partnership and among the things that are in that partnership is to look at preparing Guyana to become a hub for manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. We are looking at developing a stronger regulatory institution and with that institution when we certify something then it will be accepted by other jurisdictions. They have identified Lithuania, as one of the countries that will offer us technical capacity building so we will be working very closely with them,” he revealed.

In addition to that, the minister shared that some of the funding that they have set aside would allow Guyana to have academic partnerships with various universities in EU states. Dr. Anthony noted too that visits and talks have started with institutions in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France.

He disclosed that soon persons will receive training through the partnership.

“Very soon in June an EU mission will be coming to Guyana to explore where we can have these interchanges. Very soon an EU mission is coming to Guyana to explore opportunities in health not just the academic training but also other opportunities where they can partner with the government in the area of health,” he announced.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony disclosed that Guyana also has a strong partnership with the United Kingdom (UK). Having been assisting the country with financing of the Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Dr. Anthony noted that there have been talks to extend training.

“They have trained a number of persons in public health at various universities in the UK but very soon we will be working with them in a very closer manner so that a number of their academic institutions would customized programmes for us so that we can send our doctors, nurses, other professionals to be trained and come back to Guyana. So, this is a very extensive programme that we are developing with the UK,” he mentioned.

Speaking about another robust partnership, the minister said that following Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi’s visit to Guyana, India has extended its partnership in the field of health.

Dr. Anthony said on Saturday that one of the things that Guyana will be doing is developing a partnership with the Apollo Hospital chain in India. “They would be coming to Guyana soon and we will be signing a memorandum of understanding which include us being able to send our doctors to India so that they can get post graduate training and also India will be sending to us here in Guyana experts that will be working locally with our team so that they will be able to improve their capacity in certain areas of surgery and other areas that we currently do not have specialist in,” he explained.

Guyana also has strong partnerships with Canada and the United States. Minister Anthony said that in Canada, Guyana has been working with York University to train persons who are now working as hospital administrators, and training physicians. He noted too that with the new hospitals being constructed across the country, this training is important since they would be able to take on the leadership roles.

Apart from York University, Guyana has partnered with McMaster University. Dr. Anthony said that the country has a MoU with McMaster to send over the next two to three years at least 30 persons on a fellowship programme. This, he said, will be to ensure Guyana has specialists in several disciplines.

Moreover, the health minister said government has also partnered with Mohawk to train persons to become ultrasound technicians, an area that is lacking. In the US, he said Guyana continues to engage its partners at Mount Sinai, Northwell Hospital and the Operation Walk Mission out of Maryland.

“So these partnerships are going to help us to grow and when the President talks about developing a world-class healthcare system we recognize that if we are going to move this system forward if we are going to develop it to that level then we are going to need partners that have demonstrated excellence in healthcare across the world and we have been seeking out the best partners to make sure that we can bring them in and work so that we can develop our skills,” Dr. Anthony stated.

(Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony)

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• Dr. Frank Anthony, EU Mission, explore, Health, in June, visit Guyana

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