Faced with a growing shortage of nurses, the Government of Guyana intends to open its doors to accredited medical institutions in Canada, and other developed nations to train more Guyanese nurses in an attempt to meet the needs of the country.

Speaking at a reception on Thursday night to mark Canada Day 2023, President Irfaan Ali said while it is important to partner on big issues like Climate Change, Energy and Food Security, it is equally important for Guyana and Canada to partner in addressing social issues, such as the human resource deficit in the Public Health Sector.

According to the President, while Guyanese healthcare workers have long been receiving specialised training in Canada, there is room for greater collaboration.

“I want to position Guyana, as an important destination for the provision of regional human resource assets to meet the skills deficit of countries around the region, and here is where I think, there is a tremendous opportunity for Canada and Guyana, in which we are building the infrastructure for training institutions to train for global needs. So, High Commissioner, we encourage accredited Canadian institutions to establish their footprint in Guyana for the training of nurses to meet your own demand, for the training of medical technicians to meet your own demand but also to meet the regional demand, which includes our own demand,” the President told Canadian High Commissioner Mark Bernman.

President Ali’s open invitation to Canada, comes at a time when Guyana is experiencing a severe shortage of nurses and other medical officers. Guyanese nurses and doctors have been leaving the shores of their homeland for better opportunities and salaries in other countries.

“This is an area in which, CARICOM as a region is severely challenged, as in the cycle in the movement of labour. We see more attractive markets, attracting our medical workers, our nurses, leaving a deficit in our system, and within CARCIOM, itself, the more attractive markets will pull from within the system, leaving further deficits in some countries. So, it is very important for us as development partners in this region to example the human resource constraints that we face,” President Ali said.

Two days ago, the President said the country will be looking to Cuba to fill nursing vacancies in Guyana with their trained nurses.

President Ali said the country will initiate discussions with its international partners to have the nursing institutions here accredited by international standards.

“We are going to be opening up discussions with our development partners, in having our nurses institutions and other institutions accredited by your standard. I believe that if our nurses are good enough to be recruited from the training they receive right here in CARICOM, we are good enough to sell that service to train them to the rest of the world, and that is a business opportunity we are working on,” the President said.

President Ali is pushing for training and education to be an export earner in Guyana. Nurses and other medical staffers complained for years about their poor salaries and working conditions.

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