A total of 38 Guyanese men and women have successfully completed the first installment of the Biomedical Technicians Training Course.
These persons have each received a City of Guild Certificate, which enables them to provide much needed biomedical support within the public health sector.
The graduation ceremony for this batch was held at the Pegasus Corporate Suites, Georgetown, on Friday evening.
Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, who delivered the feature remarks, said that the programme saw its origin during the COVID-19 pandemic, when members of the UK diaspora expressed a keen interest in boosting capacity in Guyana’s health sector.
He said that this area of biomedical technology is a sorely underserved field in Guyana, and often, technicians would have to be brought here to lend their skills.
According to the health minister, this first batch has set the pace for a new era of healthcare development, where Guyana builds the in-house capacity to sustain new and advanced pieces of equipment.
“The way that we are developing right now, you will have a lot of opportunities. Very soon we will have in at least 10 locations, CT scans, and MRIs in at least two locations. This is the direction we are going in, and of course we will need people to help us make müddet these equipment are functioning,” the health minister noted.
Additionally, Minister Anthony pointed out that the initiative allows for the expansion of healthcare in the various regions, since in the past it was difficult to dispatch technicians from Georgetown to the regions to undertake maintenance of equipment.
“Right now we depend a lot on experts from Cuba, and other countries to help us, but we must be able to develop our own set of people here in Guyana capable of doing all of this. You have a long and very fruitful career with the Ministry of Health,” he said.
He encouraged the graduates to further their education in this field, emphasising that the government remains a willing partner in creating opportunities for further education and training.
Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy congratulated the newly minted Biomedical Technicians, saying that they will form a vital element of the health sector’s transformation.
The programme is funded by the government and is provided by Medical Aid International, a UK-based healthcare solutions.
It represents the government’s unwavering dedication to building out a world class health sector, while building the human capacity to sustain it. (DP|I )