Migration of nurses, technical workers plaguing health sector – Health Minister

As services within Guyana’s health sector continue to expand, the Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO), on Wednesday hosted a one-day workshop to strengthen its human resources capacity.
Hosted at the Marriott Hotel, Georgetown, this “Strategic Directions for Human Resources for Health Expansion in Guyana” workshop focused on ways the Ministry and PAHO/WHO can look to develop the sector’s human resources’ needs and readily prepare for the transformation of the health system.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony noted that most developing countries have been faced with the migration of nurses and skilled or technical workers within the healthcare system following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The health sector right now, like many countries in the Caribbean and maybe most developing countries, is experiencing a great challenge with the migration of nurses and technical persons in the health sector moving to more developed countries,” Dr Anthony said.

“This has been made more acute because of post-COVID which caused health workers in developing countries to feel burnt out. Many of them have left their jobs, and, therefore, have left a big vacuum in the health system of many of these developed countries. The easiest way for them to address some of these concerns is really to pull from developing countries,” Dr Anthony stated.
Furthermore, he added that it was more difficult to retain people within Guyana since developed countries were offering better salaries and incentives.
PAHO Director of Health Systems and Services, Dr James Fitzgerald indicated that while rebuilding the health workforce and working on a transformation within the health sector, a few policies were identified for immediate focus.
These include governance, regulation of professional practice and education; capacity development and working conditions that will retain people in the workforce.

Meanwhile, Dr Anthony said that with the help of a PAHO consultant, the Ministry was able to implement a comprehensive package of services to be delivered at the primary healthcare level, including 216 interventions that should be offered.
This package will have a mixture of preventative measures and management of infectious and non-communicable diseases.
Among those present at the workshop were Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Narine Singh; Hinterland Coordinator Michael Gouveia; PAHO Representative Dr Luis Codina; PAHO Advisor Health Systems and Services’ Daniel Albrecht, as well as the Regional Health Officers (RHOs) and directors of various programmes within the Ministry.