President Irfaan Ali pushes for bringing UWI School of Medicine to Guyana

President Irfaan Ali is making a push to ensure that the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) School of Medicine is brought to Guyana, thus ushering in a new era for the medical education sector in the nation. The announcement that discussions regarding this possibility are currently ongoing came from President Irfaan Ali on Sunday.

It is likely that the institution will be located in East Berbice-Corentyne, which is within Region Six. While most of the news regarding this development is positive, the timeline for the establishment of the institute has not been confirmed yet.

President Ali spoke at the commissioning ceremony of the Pathology Lab at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, stating the following, “When we launched the New Amsterdam Hospital, we said that in that facility we negotiated a building for teaching services, and that message went out regionally and globally. Today, I’m pleased to inform you that the University of the West Indies School of Medicine has now approached us to be part of this vision in bringing their campus to Guyana and negotiations and discussions would have commenced.”

He went on to add that, “Importantly, in the negotiations, we are now working on ensuring that the rates are the same as local students in Trinidad and Tobago so there will be equity and quality matched together.”

President Ali also mentioned that even though the University of Guyana has its own School of Medicine, this new development is a positive one for the nation as competition will become a driver for growth, propelling the medical education sector and medical services in the nation to new heights.

Guyana is looking at this particular possibility as one of the steps along its path to progressing in various fields that are seen as important to the nation. The medical sector is one of great significance to Guyana, as it looks to enhance the level of medical science in the form of education and research.