Private investments key to positioning Guyana as hub for medical tourism – Pres Ali

– says govt leading in providing incentives for healthcare investments

President Dr. Irfaan Ali has underscored the importance of private investments in advancing his government’s agenda of positioning Guyana as a premier destination for medical tourism in the region.
The Head of State made this remark on Friday evening during the inauguration of the US$5 million (G$1 billion) Optique Eye Hospital in Georgetown.
Built by Optique Care Vision, this state-of-the-art facility provides comprehensive ophthalmology services, including examinations, advanced diagnostics, and specialized surgeries such as cataract, glaucoma, orbit and oculoplastic, corneal, pterygium, and vitreoretinal procedures.
According to Ali, while attention has been focused on the government’s efforts to transform healthcare locally, the significant investments being made in private healthcare services are equally notable – the construction of this eye hospital being one.
“Private healthcare providers play an essential role in expanding services, raising standards, reducing waiting times, introducing new technologies, and importantly aligning with national goals. They complement the national healthcare system, broaden patient choice, and create healthy competition that improves quality. But beyond that, private healthcare investment also lays the foundation for something much bigger and something that is part of our vision for our country. That something is medical tourism.”
“Guyana wants to become a prime destination for medical tourism. We want our country to be known not only for its natural beauty, its energy potential, and its economic growth, but also for excellence in healthcare services. We want people from across the Caribbean, from the diaspora, from North America, and beyond, to look to Guyana as a place where they can receive high-quality, affordable, efficient, modern medical care. I would like to see the private sector continue to drive this process at an even faster pace,” the Guyanese leader posited.

Incentivizing private investments
In fact, in order to push the transformation of the local healthcare sector, the Guyana Government has been incentivizing private investments – something that President Ali says the country is leading in.
“The investments that we are making are to align our health services with the care economy because the care economy is not just a provision of health services. It’s an entire ecosystem that will allow us to provide services for economic value and financial returns, and that is why the private sector is critical to this national strategy, and that is why we have incentivized healthcare and the private sector like no other country in this region, and I dare say we are among the top 5 percent globally when it comes to incentives for investment in healthcare,” he noted.
While the new $1 billion Optique Eye Hospital is Guyana’s first privately owned facility, Ali emphasized that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has long recognized the importance of delivering specialized services to the Guyanese people.
He recalled the establishment in 2009 of the Ophthalmology Hospital at Port Mourant, Region Six, which deteriorated under the previous Coalition Administration and had to be revitalized when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic returned to office in 2020. Today, the Head of State said, the hospital is once again conducting meaningful work, performing an average of more than 1,000 surgeries annually.
Similarly, with enhanced capacity and international partnerships, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation conducts an average of 1,300 cataract surgeries per annum.
“That means thousands of citizens had their sight restored, their independence improved, and their quality of life enhanced … That is what investment in healthcare means in practical terms. It means a grandmother reading again. It means a father returning to work. It means a child seeing clearly in the classroom. It means dignity, productivity, and hope,” he noted.

Eyecare Voucher Programme
Despite these surgical successes, however, the Guyanese leader went on to outline the importance of prevention through early detection and routine checks. He pointed to the government’s National Eye Testing and Spectacles Subsidy Programme, which provides beneficiaries with vouchers-$2,000 for eye tests and $15,000 for spectacles.
According to the president, “At the end of last year, a total of 175,272 vouchers were utilized for eye tests, and 160,282 Guyanese benefited from spectacles support.
Too often, people delay eye examinations. We have proactively gone into every primary school, and we are now on the verge of completing every secondary school… The goal is to do this three times before that child moves out of the primary and secondary school systems.”
“Too often, vision issues are ignored because of cost, inconvenience, or lack of awareness. Too often, manageable conditions become more serious, more expensive, and more damaging because intervention comes too late. We want people to test early. We want problems detected early. We want treatment to begin early, and we want Guyanese to enjoy healthier vision throughout their lives.”
This programme, the Guyanese leader explained, is not only a compassionate social policy but also a smart economic policy. He said it also reflects how the government’s initiatives do not crowd out but support the private sector in alleviating some of the burden on the public health system.
“In delivering this [ National Eyecare] programme, we are utilizing the services of private eye care providers to undertake many of these tests and services… This helps us utilize existing and spare capacity within the private sector, and that is efficient. Why build entirely new state-run systems where capable private facilities already exist? Why duplicate infrastructure when partnerships can deliver faster results? …This publicly financed, privately delivered model allows the state to subsidize care while private specialists and eyecare providers dispense services,” he stressed.
President Ali noted this modern model of governance through public-private partnerships has tremendous potential across many areas of healthcare services.
To this end, he declared that the government is ready to work with responsible private healthcare providers that are committed to quality, affordability, and national development, thus playing a significant role in building out the best medical tourism programme in this region.