$2.8B in cervical testing assistance to benefit over 350,000 persons in 2024

The allocation of $2.8 billion in the Health Ministry’s budget for 2024 is expected to assist some 350,000 persons under a new cervical cancer testing programme.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony made this disclosure following clarifications requested by Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs), Volda Lawrence and Dr Karen Cummings during the final day of Consideration of Estimates into Budget 2024.
Responding to questions on assistance for prostate cancer, Dr Anthony shared that a new programme would be launched in collaboration with a Non-Governmental Organisation, targeting men and raising awareness on testing.
“If they have enlarged prostate, one of the challenges we had was to do biopsies. You will see that we are launching a new pathology lab where the turnaround time for biopsies will be less than a week. These are improvements that are there and while we can fund a few patients from here, the existing routine programmes of the Ministry will be able to capture quite a number of persons who require these services,” Dr Anthony said.

The Minister further informed, “In the Ministry, we have set up a programme to deal with prostate cancer and we have assigned someone to head that programme under men’s health. Last year, we did buy a number of the machines to be able to do testing. This year, we will be rolling out a more aggressive programme.”
He further agreed that the Ministry would need to be more proactive in disseminating information on these programmes, since many persons were unaware of their existence. Several local figures have hopped on board to be ambassadors of this cause when the programme is launched.
The Cancer Registry has been updated as of 2023 with information on the types of cancers in Guyana, and private institutions have been mandated to provide new data for the Ministry’s records.
Meanwhile, in the National Budget, $1.8 billion was earmarked to assist children and the elderly with spectacle vouchers.
“Under this allocation, we should be able to help close to 600,000 persons get those vouchers,” said Dr Anthony.
For 2024, Government has set aside close to $600 million to support persons with coronary heart disease. Calling it a worthwhile expenditure, the Minister added that last year, $577 million was spent for some 1500 patients.
Dialysis patients will also receive assistance through a $360 million allocation. The Ministry has several regional dialysis centres, located in Suddie in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Parika and Vreed-en-Hoop in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), New Amsterdam in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and the Linden Hospital in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Dr Anthony also explained how Government has been able to bring down the expense load for patients, “We have been in partnership with many of these private providers and when these facilities are housed in a case like Suddie, we provide the accommodation for the centre, but it is run by a private institution. We also provide them with utilities. In that way, we’re able to bring down the cost because for some of those patients, they would pay $10,000 per session. This $630,000 that we give them would last longer.”
Meanwhile, $212 million will be spent for patients requiring MRIs, CT scans and other medical procedures. (G12)