RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day an­nounced that Guyana is un­der­tak­ing ma­jor hos­pi­tal con­struc­tion and that “very soon, Trinidad and To­ba­go will be able to pro­vide job op­por­tu­ni­ties for our med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers in Guyana.”

It’s a de­vel­op­ment she said will strength­en re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion while ex­pand­ing em­ploy­ment for lo­cal spe­cial­ists. The Prime Min­is­ter made the state­ment as she de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at the “Gift of Life” Christ­mas Treat and the of­fi­cial reded­i­ca­tion of the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, where 48 young ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the Chil­dren’s Life Fund wel­comed her with Christ­mas car­ols and hand­made gifts.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ex­pan­sion of Guyana’s health sec­tor was time­ly, not­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go was ag­gres­sive­ly re­build­ing its med­ical work­force and that re­gion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties would ben­e­fit both na­tions.

“As Guyana builds new hos­pi­tals, we will be ready—with trained, qual­i­fied, com­pas­sion­ate pro­fes­sion­als who can serve there while con­tin­u­ing to strength­en our own sys­tem,” she said.

But the fo­cus of the evening was on chil­dren—es­pe­cial­ly those whose lives have been saved via as­sis­tance from the Chil­dren’s Life Fund, which was cre­at­ed by Per­sad-Bisses­sar in 2010 dur­ing her first stint as Prime Min­is­ter. Video clips of her his­toric an­nounce­ment al­lo­cat­ing $100 mil­lion to the fund and do­nat­ing part of her salary drew ap­plause from hun­dreds of chil­dren and par­ents. Six­teen-year-old Ezekiel Mc In­tyre, who un­der­went open-heart surgery in Flori­da with sup­port from the fund, pre­sent­ed the Prime Min­is­ter with hand­craft­ed flow­ers.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar used the cer­e­mo­ny to high­light the hos­pi­tal’s re­open­ing af­ter near­ly a decade of aban­don­ment. She said the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal rep­re­sent­ed a re­turn to a promise that “no child will ever again be for­got­ten or left be­hind un­der my Gov­ern­ment.”

She con­demned what she de­scribed as the “lost years,” claim­ing that the hos­pi­tal, com­mis­sioned in 2015, was closed short­ly af­ter by the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“This was not de­lay; it was ma­li­cious ne­glect,” she said, adding that al­most $100 mil­lion in med­ical equip­ment ex­pired or be­came ob­so­lete as a re­sult.

The Prime Min­is­ter re­vealed that since phased ac­ti­va­tion be­gan ear­li­er this year, the fa­cil­i­ty had al­ready com­plet­ed 86 surg­eries and treat­ed 16 chil­dren in spe­cial­ist clin­ics, in­clud­ing pae­di­atric neu­rol­o­gy, en­docrinol­o­gy, car­di­ol­o­gy, and neona­tal care. These ef­forts, she said, are be­gin­ning to ease the na­tion­al wait­ing list—more than 11,300 cas­es, in­clud­ing over 4,600 de­layed oph­thal­mol­o­gy pro­ce­dures.

“This hos­pi­tal is now part of our na­tion­al so­lu­tion,” she said.

“We are re­duc­ing wait­ing lists not on­ly through ex­pand­ed ser­vices here, but al­so through the strength­ened Chil­dren’s Life Fund, which re­moves fi­nan­cial bar­ri­ers for ur­gent over­seas treat­ment.”

She not­ed that amend­ments to the fund were passed as the first bill of her new ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so praised cor­po­rate donors, in­clud­ing Trin­clean Lim­it­ed’s do­na­tion of 60 wheel­chairs and In­o­vaar Mar­ket­ing’s sup­ply of 58,000 med­ical-grade masks. “It is Christ­mas every time you let God love oth­ers through you,” she said, quot­ing Moth­er Tere­sa.

The Prime Min­is­ter out­lined sev­er­al next steps for the hos­pi­tal, in­clud­ing full MRI and CT imag­ing, ex­pand­ed oph­thal­mol­o­gy surgery, en­hanced en­doscopy ser­vices, and in­creased spe­cial­ist re­cruit­ment. She said the fa­cil­i­ty was built as both a treat­ment cen­tre and a teach­ing hos­pi­tal, form­ing part of a broad­er na­tion­al re­form agen­da that in­cludes ex­pand­ed NICU ca­pac­i­ty, im­proved on­col­o­gy path­ways, and a dig­i­tal med­ical records roll­out.

She said the hos­pi­tal’s reded­i­ca­tion was a mo­ment of na­tion­al re­new­al. “Every child car­ries dig­ni­ty, po­ten­tial, and pur­pose,” she said.

“Tonight, with this chil­dren’s hos­pi­tal re­stored, we ho­n­our that truth and that promise. Promise made, promise kept,” she added.

Af­ter the speech, cheques were pre­sent­ed and the hos­pi­tal was lit while gifts and snacks were pre­sent­ed to the chil­dren.