15 new Medical Laboratory Technicians joins health sector

Residents from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) will now benefit from improved medical services, following a graduation ceremony on Saturday which saw a total of 15 persons receiving their Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) Certificates.
This comprehensive programme was designed to produce highly qualified technicians who will play a vital role in improving healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
The one-year training programme combined extensive theoretical lessons with hands-on practical experience, ensuring that participants gained expertise in key areas such as hematology, microbiology, blood banking, clinical chemistry, immunology, and urology.
Students were also trained in essential competencies like laboratory safety protocols, specimen handling, quality assurance, and data interpretation skills critical for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of laboratory services.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said that over the years the Health Ministry has significantly expanded its training programmes. This he noted has since eliminated the need for persons to travel to Georgetown to upskill themselves.

“We want to ensure that people in the various regions that they’re getting opportunities. If we were using the old model, then perhaps only one or two persons from this region would have been able to participate in the course that we normally would run in Georgetown and obviously if you’re training one or two persons per year, then that’s not going to be enough to fill the gaps that we have in the region and to take care of the expansion in healthcare that we’re doing in the region.”
On this point the Minister noted that these robust programmes require extensive research and studying, this the Minister revealed will ensure that upon completion students are well seasoned in their respective medical fields.
“These programmes are quite robust, so if you don’t put in the effort, you’re not going to make it in medicine, after all, is a very serious thing, and therefore we want to train you in a way that you can dispense your professional responsibility in the best possible manner. People must not have any doubts about your ability, because once you’re properly trained, you’ll be able to do that properly.”
Moreover, Anthony revealed that as part of the Ministry’s efforts to improve patient care, the Health Ministry will be focusing on improving patient comfort in hospitals.
“But I think one of the things that we’ve been looking at is patient comfort because when you go to a hospital, if you go to one of our hospitals now, you’re in a ward and maybe they’ve got 20 other people in the ward, right? And you don’t get any privacy. You don’t get when you’ve got to go to the washroom, you’ve got to get up, you’ve got to go make your way walk how far it is, and that sort of thing.”
In fact, the Minister highlighted that at the new $6 billion Regional Hospital at Bath Settlement in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) will feature rooms catering for a maximum of five persons.
“This hospital, you would have rooms with five beds and each one of these rooms would have their own toilet and bath and the room would be fully AC and so, we were just visiting and outside of the room, they got some nice electronic gadget outside the room that would tell you who occupied which bed in the room.”
Meanwhile, more than 30,000 residents of Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) are set to benefit from enhanced healthcare services when construction of the state-of-the-art Regional Hospital at Bath Settlement, valued at over $6 billion, has been completed. The completed Bath Settlement Hospital would feature a 24-hour Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department that is equipped with a theatre to deliver prompt medical care for minor fractures and other injuries.
Importantly, the health facility would be classified a level four hospital, eradicating the necessity for persons to be referred to hospitals in Georgetown or New Amsterdam. The health facility is being constructed by China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, Sinopharm.