Guyana, Suriname poised to strengthen health cooperation

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 August 2021, 19:52 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana and Suriname are set to heighten cooperation in health including the provision of highly specialised services, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said Thursday shortly after inking an accord with his counterpart.

He offered, as examples Guyana being able to offer kidney transplants to Surinamese, and this country sending patients to that Dutch-speaking nation for radiotherapy.  “In a way, we can complement each other so those are the kinds of things we have covered,” he told reporters.

Dr. Anthony said the accord also provides for exchanges in training in health sciences over the next two years.

The Health Minister disclosed that Guyana and Suriname planned to “synchronise our efforts” to deal with vaccine hesitancy.

In the case of Guyana, Dr. Anthony said the priority is to get more persons vaccinated as the total number of persons who have got both jabs is 30 percent, while the aim is to get it up to 80 to 85 percent.