In a fiery rebuttal to what he branded as “dangerous dishonesty”, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has categorically dismissed claims by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton that maternal deaths are rising in Guyana, calling the remarks false, misleading, and politically desperate.
Norton’s assertion came during the A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) 2025 campaign launch at the Square of the Revolution, Cuffy Square, Georgetown, where he took aim at the state of Guyana’s health sector. But Jagdeo, in response, tore apart the opposition’s claims, labelling them reckless attacks divorced from facts, and offered hard evidence of the PPP/C government’s investments in world-class healthcare delivery.
Conditions at Enmore Polyclinic under APNU/AFC’s 2015 – 2020 time in office
“Let’s be clear: maternal deaths are not rising — that’s a lie. The Ministry of Health has already debunked it. But more importantly, our record proves it,” Jagdeo said.
To underscore his point, Jagdeo presented shocking images of the Enmore Polyclinic taken in July 2021, just months after the PPP/C returned to power. The photos — cracked floors, missing tiles, broken beds, and a crumbling roof — were described as “a snapshot of the healthcare disaster” inherited from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) administration.
“This is what we found. And this is what we’ve changed,” Jagdeo said, holding up before-and-after images of the facility, which has since been completely rebuilt and modernised.
The Enmore case, he stressed, was just one of many across the country where neglect under APNU had left the public health infrastructure in disrepair.
Jagdeo went further, outlining a multi-billion-dollar transformation of Guyana’s health sector led by the PPP/C since taking office in August 2020. He pointed to the launch of six brand-new regional hospitals currently being completed on the coast, four additional hospitals in Regions One, Seven, Eight, and Nine, fully equipped with telemedicine and diagnostic technologies, and a state-of-the-art maternal and children’s hospital, under construction along the new highway.
In contrast, Jagdeo accused APNU of slashing capital expenditure during their term, leaving Guyana’s health infrastructure crippled and crumbling.
“The fact of the matter is that health care deteriorated significantly in the five years that they were there, and Norton has embraced fully what took place in those five years; he didn’t distance himself; he didn’t say they made a mess and I want to do something else; he did that. So having this was at the launch misleading,” he added.
As the election campaign heats up, Jagdeo made clear that the PPP/C would run on its track record, including its revolution in healthcare access and quality.
“Let Norton hold rallies and shout his lies from rooftops. We’ll continue building hospitals, saving lives, and delivering what we promised — because that’s what real leadership looks like,” Jagdeo affirmed.
