GOAL, Medvarsity partner for medical services training in growing healthcare sector

Medvarsity, Apollo Hospitals’ digital education arm, has partnered with the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) to provide citizens with training in a wide range of medical services to meet the growing demands of the local healthcare sector.
Medvarsity, a medical university based in Hyderabad, India, has partnered with the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) – the first medical university to sign on to the programme since its inception in 2021.
Since its launch, GOAL has produced thousands of graduates who have earned degrees, master’s and other academic qualifications in a wide range of fields.
Now, GOAL is equipped to produce graduates in the field of medicine.
The institution functions as an online certification provider specialising in the medical and healthcare sectors. Although headquartered in India, Medvarsity maintains offices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bangladesh, and the United Kingdom (UK).
Speaking at the launch of the partnership on Tuesday, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, highlighted how this collaboration will help strengthen Guyana’s healthcare capacity and broaden opportunities for local professionals.
“And here we are today at this grand launch and we already have 165 students that have been enrolled, and they’ll be doing close to 330 different courses; and that’s amazing, as this is just the first time that we’re starting this, that we have so many students who would be participating.”
He added that of the students who are starting, 141 of them are females, additionally he highlighted that a lot of nurses will be participating – these courses that they’re taking are very pertinent to the Health Ministry’s vision.
While most of the current courses are fully online, plans are underway to introduce a blended learning model. This approach would allow students to complete theoretical components online, while practical training – essential in the field of medicine – would be conducted in person.
“While we are starting most of the courses that probably you can do it all online, in the future, we are hoping to pursue some of the courses that would be in a mixed way. You do the theory online, and then if there are practical things that need to be done or learned, we can send those persons up to India to be able to get those types of practical skills, medicine, apart from knowing the theory, is also a hands-on thing. So you need to have some practical skills, and we look forward to sending some of our people up to India to be able to get those skills.”
“And we have been discussing as well the possibility of some of your specialists coming to Guyana and teaching in Guyana. We are able to licence your specialists in Guyana to practice, and so you can teach here in Guyana as well. So I think it’s exciting,” he added.
Selected students will be sent to India to gain hands-on experience and develop the practical skills required in healthcare.
The Health Minister mentioned that these students will serve a great importance, as several new hospitals are being established across the country.
“Now, one of the things that we are doing is to open new hospitals. We have six hospitals that would be opened between now and at the end of August. Two have already been opened. So I think the training would be of utmost importance, because it would allow for us to have persons who are well-trained to manage these units. And there are many other courses that we have pursued, you know, we have looked at on the Medvarsity platform that I think are going to be very important as we upscale our people here. So we are extremely excited about this partnership.”
He added that he looks forward to a very long-term relationship, because the Health Ministry believes that the partnership between Guyana and India is one that would grow, expand, and strengthen over time.
Meanwhile, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, Director of GOAL, stated that the trainees will undergo training in two distinct modules:
“So in this initial stage, we took the decision to register everybody to two training modules. Once they finish one, they don’t need to reapply to go to the next one. But you must finish one before you go to the next one. We hope that every one of us, we make better use of this opportunity for the improvement of health facilities in Guyana.”
Other key speakers included Mr Bibhuti Acharya, Vice President (VP), Medvarsity; Mr Matthew Sammy, Territory Lead, Caribbean Region, Apollo Hospitals; Ms Swathi Prabhu Balgi, Programme Manager & Database Administrator at GOAL and Ms Apurva Aparamita Bhat, Assistant General Manager (AGM) at Medvarsity.
The Courses being offered include Advanced Certificate in Critical Care Nursing; Certificate in ECG Interpretation; Certificate in Diabetes Mellitus; Advanced Certificate in Infection Prevention & Control; Advanced Certificate in Surgical Nursing; and Advanced Certificate in Clinical Cardiology.
The courses are aligned with Guyana’s evolving healthcare needs, including ECG interpretation and critical care, skills that are essential as the country prepares to open six new hospitals, two of which are already operational and equipped with advanced critical care and step-down units.