HealthNext Guyana

Guyana is enjoying a period of strong economic growth, which is driving increased investment in the healthcare sector, particularly in specialised infrastructure and advanced medical technologies. Consequently, this rapidly transforming healthcare system has new needs, with the questions of how to organise specialist care, strengthen human resources, ensure sustainable management of biomedical equipment, and develop research and innovation capabilities.

Against this backdrop, Guyana HealthNext helps consolidate these investments and strengthen institutional and technical ties with the European Union in health care and biomedical innovation. The project is in line with the European Union’s Global Gateway 360° approach and its PharmaNext programme.

HealthNext focuses on training in specialised healthcare services (especially oncology),healthcare technology management and research collaboration. Its aim is to build bridges with the European Union and to foster partnerships between Guyanese and European healthcare institutions, universities and the private sector. In this way, the project is helping to give concrete shape to Guyana’s national strategy to develop specialised health care and aims to reduce morbidity and mortality by 2030.

More specifically, HealthNext seeks to strengthen the capacity of the national healthcare system to provide safe, accessible and high-quality specialised healthcare services backed up by robust biomedical and pharmaceutical systems and by evidence-based research and development.

The project is based on three action priorities:

1. Development of specialised and ultra-specialised health care
2. Improved management of biomedical equipment
3. Support for research

The HealthNext project seeks to improve the organisation and delivery of specialised care in the priority areas of oncology, nephrology, dialysis and transplantation. Structured training programmes are being set up in these sectors, targeting doctors, nurses and laboratory staff. Through partnerships with hospitals and universities across Europe, healthcare staff can benefit from scholarship schemes, mentoring programmes and study visits to further their skills.

The project also provides for drawing up a national framework for organ donation and transplants, implemented by the Spanish Donor and Transplantation Institute, in close collaboration with the Human Organ and Tissue Transplantation Agency. This framework provides for:

• creating an HLA-certified laboratory;
• establishing a donor register; and
• setting up a national transplantation coordination system.

Hospitals will be equipped to operate as organ retrieval centres, and national awareness campaigns will be organised to promote the ethical and social acceptance aspects of organ donation.

By improving the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care for chronic and end-stage kidney disease, this initiative helps to reduce avoidable hospital admissions and positions Guyana as a regional leader in transplantation services.

The aim of this second priority area is to establish a coherent national system for the governance, regulation and management of medical equipment within Guyana’s health system, in order to ensure the safe, effective and sustainable operation of new or refurbished health infrastructure across the national hospital network.

Training courses and capacity-building sessions are offered to biomedical engineers and technicians to improve the management and maintenance of equipment.

HealthNext helps to strengthen Guyana’s capacity to generate, manage and utilise scientific data to inform health policy and clinical practice, by assisting the country in developing a structured research programme with clear priorities and objectives.

The activities facilitate the creation of links with European research institutions to strengthen collaboration in the field of research.