The Guyana Government is working on introducing a Prostate Cancer Screening Programme to facilitate the early detection and treatment of the disease among men.
This was revealed by President Dr Irfaan Ali during an appearance at the Concordia 2024 Summit in New York alongside Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hess Corporation, John Hess; Director of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr Rachel Vreeman; and CEO of Mount Sinai Health System, Dr Brendan Carr.
“We’re doing 100 per cent national testing for cervical cancer and we’re giving you the treatment if you need treatment. We’re now moving to prostate examination. So, this’s a story that we’re building out that is going to be amazing,” the Head of State noted.
In preparation for the nationwide prostate screening exercise, the Health Ministry conducted a series of workshop sessions with health professionals in the 10 regions across the country.
The National Prostate Cancer Screening Programme will screen men aged 45-69.
This initiative comes on the heels of the comprehensive Cervical Cancer Screening Programme that was rolled out back in June, targeting women between the ages of 21 and 65.
This $2.8 billion programme provides $8000 vouchers for cervical cancer screenings, which can be redeemed at participating institutions including New Vision Medical Centre, Woodlands Limited, HUIAQI Health Service, Eureka Medical Laboratory, and Dr Balwant Singh Hospital.
Through this nationwide screening programme, test results will be available within 72 to 96 hours – a feat that was lauded by the Mount Sinai official.
“After, say you’ve had a biopsy and you’re wondering about a cancer diagnosis to only have to wait for two days rather than having to wait for potentially even months, that is life-changing – not only changing the options for diagnosis and treatment, but truly changes your entire approach to how that disease and how you’re cared for is,” Dr Vreeman stated.
She noted that Mount Sinai was actively working with Guyana’s Health Ministry to build its capacity, both human resources and equipment-wise, to adequately provide for those patients diagnosed with cancer the world-class care and treatment that is available in other countries.
Currently, the Guyana Government is working with Mount Sinai on its Child and Youth Health Programme (CYHP) and since August 2023, some 70 per cent of children at the nursery level have received health screening and treatment, with primary-school students now being targeted.
The nursery-level children undergo a comprehensive physical examination focusing on their head, eyes, ears, face, legs and arms along with heartbeat and blood pressure.
“In almost all of the countries around the world, there often are not places for children to get routine evaluations or screening after they are babies and finish their first sets of shots. So, in Guyana now, they are starting every year to provide each school-going child with a full health exam, checking their vision, their hearing, looking for dental issues and making sure they have that full check-up, looking for learning delays and challenges with their growth. And then creating the referrals and connections so that right there, in that community, each family, if there is an issue that is detected, gets connected to the services that are needed…
“In less than a year, this first year of implementation, they’ve managed to screen 70 per cent of the eligible nursery school students. That’s an incredible feat. I’ve been working in child health globally for more than 20 years [and] I’ve never seen a programme scale up across an entire country like this so quickly,” the Mount Sinai official stated.
Back in June, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that almost 20,000 nursery children have benefited from medical screening under this programme.
According to Dr Anthony, “This year, we have set ourselves an objective of screening close to 180,000 children.”
During the recent healthcare discussion, President Ali explained that all of these initiatives are part of a wider effort by the Government to build a world-class ecosystem to support health-care provision. Key to this, he underscored, is creating synergy between the capacity and infrastructure within the healthcare system.
“It is one thing to commit yourself to do the testing, but when you complete the testing, and the situation is now in your hands that you now have to provide the services to deal with what the results are, then you have to find the resources. You have to have the hospitals; you have to have the capability and we’ve committed ourselves to putting that capability in place,” the Guyanese Leader stated.
