Govt working to improve hazmat transport in health sector

…lab upgrades also planned

Recognizing that the current methods of transporting hazardous materials (hazmat) within the health sector are not ideal, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has revealed that investments are being made to improve this process.
He made this announcement on Thursday as the Health Ministry launched its Multi-Hazard Emergency Management Plan for stakeholders.
Government hopes to build its capacity to efficiently and effectively respond to challenges in the health sector, including the possibility of another pandemic.
“We also recognize that our way of transporting pathogens or materials that we think might be infectious might not be the ideal way, and certainly, within the country, we can improve that. And so we have set aside resources, over the next year or two, to be able to improve that transport system so that it can be done in the safest possible way,” he said.
He also noted that investments are being made to upgrade the National Public Health Reference Lab. When this lab is enhanced, it would allow medical practitioners to check pathogenic tests for themselves.
“We are also going to upgrade the National Public Health Reference Lab to a level three lab. For those of you who are in laboratory sciences, you would know that this is a significant jump, because we will then be able to handle certain types of pathogens, test for them, and so forth — things that we cannot do right now. But by upgrading the lab to this level, we’ll now be able to perform these tests on our own. Right now, if we have to do some of these things, we probably would have to send them abroad. But we want to develop the capacity so that we can do that right here,” the Health Minister stated.
With the lab accredited by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Anthony noted that the facility is now recognized as a national influenza centre.
“Apart from that, we have also had some successes; because, with PAHO last year, we received accreditation, so we are now an influenza centre. For the first time, the National Public Health Lab in Guyana has been recognized as a National Influenza Center, and we have several sites across the country that can actually collect samples and send them to us,” he disclosed.
He added that this means steps are now being taken in the right direction to make progress and ensure that everything is put together to enable work being done on improving preparedness in the area of laboratories.
It has been underscored that, just last year, with the assistance of PAHO, the Health Ministry was also able to put together a laboratory strategy. Based on that strategy, the Ministry outlined how the different regions should work, the types of labs they should have, and the other partners they should bring in to collaborate with them.
The Health Minister also mentioned that all of these are mapped out in the Ministry’s strategy, and work is actively ongoing to ensure it can be implemented.