School health programme strengthened with Mount Sinai’s Starlink boost

The Health Ministry on Tuesday, strengthened its commitment to child and youth health care through its nationwide school health system with the receipt of Starlink units from the Mount Sinai Health System.
The handing over ceremony, held at the Ministry’s headquarters on Brickdam, brought together health officials and international partners who are focused on expanding and modernizing Guyana’s school-based health programme. This program, designed to ensure that every child in Guyana has access to early health assessments, began in 2023 and now span nursery, primary and secondary schools.

Director of Family and Primary Healthcare Services, Dr Ertenisa Hamilton, emphasized that the additional new technology marks a critical step forward in optimizing the programme. She noted that the integration of digital tools will improve the ministry’s ability to collect, store, and utilize health data for informed decision making, particularly in addressing the needs of the nation’s children and youth population.
“We’re happy for this occasion. because it allows us to do more. Health remains a priority for the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health, so this is just another step in the right direction in ensuring that we have data that is readily available that can be used for decision-making in our child and youth population,” Dr. Hamilton said.
Delivering remarks on behalf of the Mount Sinai, Dr Racheal Vreeman praised Guyana’s efforts, describing the initiative as globally significant.
“The work you’ve done to spread this from nursery schools to primary schools to secondary schools really continues to be a model, not only for the region, but globally in terms of what it looks like for a country to support and take care of each child within its borders. I think it’s just an incredible, incredible thing that you have moved forward. It’s very much our pleasure to continue to support this initiative however we can,” she said.
Dr Vreeman explained that the donation of Starlink units will play a pivotal role in strengthening the programme’s digital backbone. With improved internet connectivity, health teams will be able to upload screening data in real time, streamline evaluations, and more efficiently connect families to necessary follow-up care.
“You are capturing data electronically already and being able to really transform those evaluations to have those data and connect families into what they need for next steps for their children’s health and as we’re providing today some additional Starlink units to ensure that the connectivity, the internet connections of those data are able to be rapidly made available and uploaded and move across the screenings is just another good step in what Guyana’s moving forward to be able to have this program really respond to the needs of every family in the country. So, it’s with great pleasure that we’re able to hand these over today,” Dr. Vreeman added.
Also present at the ceremony were Country Director for Guyana, Dr. Corey Hancock; Medical Director, Dr. Tao Xu; Registered Nurse and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Lashonne McLeod-Johnson; and School Health Optometrist, Jessy Jessamy, among other members of the School Health Unit.
Meanwhile, Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony expressed appreciation for the continued collaboration with Mount Sinai. He noted that while significant progress has already been made in expanding the screening programme nationwide, the addition of improved connectivity will greatly enhance the productivity and efficiency of health teams operating in the field.
“The units that we have here would improve vastly the work, the productivity of the team. So, we still have a little bit more to do, but we’re very confident that we’ll be able to do this. And now with improving the connectivity, I think it will help the team to work even faster,” the minister said.
He added that improved internet access will directly impact the speed and quality of service delivery.
He further affirmed the ministry’s commitment to completing the programme’s full national rollout, ensuring that no child is left behind.
The donation of Starlink units is expected to enhance the Ministry’s ability to collect and transmit health data from schools, particularly in remote and underserved areas where connectivity has been a longstanding challenge.