Black Immigrant Daily News

In an effort to further develop the health care system in Guyana, the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Service has partnered with the Schulich ExecEd at Canada’s leading business school, the Schulich School of Business at York University, to develop capacity training for Hospital Leadership.

The programme is designed to teach management and leadership skills to work professionals, aspiring leaders, managers, and senior leaders in the health sector and will be delivered on a virtual platform to participants from all ten (10) administrative regions.

The virtual launch was held on October 13, 2022, with attendance from Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Public Service Ms. Sonia Parag, distinguished faculty from Schulich ExecEd, Schulich School of Business, and representatives from both Ministries and all participants.

Minister Parag in her remarks added the importance of training citing the “Government’s commitment to provide quality training to all Guyanese” but especially so to those serving in the health care sector of our country.

These comments were further emphasised by Minister Anthony who added that the Ministry of Health has embarked on an aggressive campaign to develop the healthcare sector through the construction of several hospitals including the country’s first Maternal and Paediatric Hospital and several other projects to build and rehabilitate hospitals in the hinterland areas.

This, he said, creates the need to develop the capacity of the administrators who will be assigned to these hospitals. The programme he further stated will provide this training.

This training is just one of many training programmes which the Ministry of Health has embarked on to develop skills training not just for the medical staff but for all staff attached to the Ministry of Health in a combined effort to enhance and develop health care delivery in Guyana.

“We are delighted to partner with the Ministry of Health, Government of Guyana as they overhaul the delivery of healthcare services by developing their top hospital administrators across all 10 regions, equipping them with the skills necessary to lead this transformation,” says Rami Mayer, Executive Director of Schulich ExecEd.

“Our goal is to help the Guyanese Government transform its health care system and develop better hospital administrators and provide innovative health care solutions to improve patient outcomes.”

Mayer added that “The Schulich ExecEd-Guyana Masters Certificate in Hospital Leadership Programme is customised for Guyana’s hospital administrators providing them with the necessary interpersonal skills and hands-on business tools to improve their management, leadership, and service delivery skills at all levels.”

“At Schulich ExecEd, we help organisations like Guyana’s Ministry of Health, build and foster a high-performing, collaborative workplace culture with a strong emphasis on promoting leadership, communication, and innovation to help achieve organisational and performance goals,” he said.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

CHARLESTOWN, NEVIS, October 25, 2022 (NIA) — Mr. Royston Queeley of Newcastle village, the winner of the first Men Can Cook Grill Master Edition hosted by the Department of Gender Affairs placed 3rd from a field of seven participants at the Dr. Packer Annual Backyard BBQ contest in Palm Bay, Florida on October 15, 2022.

His participation was the prize offered to the winner of at the Men Can Cook Grill Master Edition, an event which formed part of International Men’s Day 2021 activities on Nevis.

Mr. Queeley described his participation in the Florida contest as a delightful one.

“The experience was a wonderful experience. It felt good competing against other chefs outside of Nevis. The competition was a fierce one.  This was my first time attending and I gained a lot of experience which will help me to win the trophy next year,” he said.

The Newcastle villager expressed his gratitude to all who gave him the opportunity to participate in both contests.

“I want to thank the Department of Gender Affairs for giving me an opportunity to showcase my talent not only in Nevis but also in Florida. I also want to thank Dr. Donald Packer-Manners for his warm Nevisian hospitality,” he said.

Ms. Catherine Forbes, Training Officer who represented the department, described Mr. Queeley as being eager to compete in the competition in which he was required to barbecue in the categories of chicken, pork and fish.

“He was very enthusiastic, very meticulous, paid great attention to detail and exhibited creativity. It was the first time he had been to something like that. It was easy for me to work with him. He took criticisms and ideas in a positive way and improved in areas suggested. He was cooperative and interacted well with other grillers and exhibited good social skills before and after the contest,” she said.

The Department of Gender Affairs thanked the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank for what it termed as “their generous sponsorship” towards Mr. Queeley’s participation in the overseas grilling competition. They also expressed gratitude to Dr. Packer, his wife Edna and Mr. Steve “Piggy” Parris for the kind hospitality extended to Mr. Queeley during his stay in Florida.

Registration for the Department of Gender Affairs 2022 Men Can Cook: Grill Master Edition, scheduled for November 13, 2022, is open.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, October 25, 2022 (SKNIS) – The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis today (October 25) outlined its vision of a new and better way for the delivery of healthcare in the Federation, starting with the significant improvement in the services available at the Joseph N. France General Hospital, the main medical facility in the Federation.

“The public outcry on the unacceptable state of affairs in healthcare, in general, and particularly at the main hospital, will no longer fall on deaf ears. Our Labour Government is listening and has an excellent plan for providing good, affordable, and accessible healthcare services for our people,” said the Governor General’s Deputy, Her Excellency Marcella Liburd JP as she delivered the Throne Speech at the opening of the new Session of the National Assembly.

As outlined in the Throne Speech, the St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party-led administration is “committed to ensuring that the JNF General Hospital is transformed into a state-of-the-art health facility. Our people will benefit from top-level care including greater access to modern services right here in the Federation. We will seek to improve and expand services in specialized areas such as oncology and dialysis treatment.”

The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, under the leadership of Prime Minister the Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew, also intends to scale up the number of skilled professionals working in the healthcare system and invest in the training and recruitment of more specialist doctors and nurses.

“We will provide support to our citizens who show interest in studying to qualify as registered nurses and nurse practitioners. Our Government will ensure that the number of doctors specializing in critical areas is increased. We will provide incentives for persons training in medicine to specialize in areas that are presently lacking in the Federation, including nurse practitioners. The capacity of the healthcare system needs to be improved and we are confident that our approach would yield much better results and a modern and more efficient health system,” said Her Excellency Liburd.

Just recently, the Ministry of Health assigned a cadre of doctors to the Pogson Medical Center in Sandy Point to ensure that a doctor is physically available 24/7 at the medical facility. This measure is expected to be adopted at the Mary Charles Hospital in Molineux in the near future.

Additionally, the Government purchased a new MRI machine for the JNF General Hospital, making the service affordable and more accessible to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The body of an unidentified man has been found floating in the Mazaruni River, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

Reports are that about 15:00h on Tuesday, a female called the Bartica Police Station and reported that she received information from a miner in the area, who is a claim holder at Barakat Mining Concession, that his workers saw what appeared to be the bloated body of a human floating in the Mazaruni River.

As a result, around 10:00h on Wednesday, a Police rank went to Barakat Backdam, Mazaruni River where he made checks and observed the motionless body of a male floating face-down in the Mazaruni River.

Police said that the body was pulled from the river and found to be in an advanced state of decomposition.

“Due to the state of decomposition, no mark of violence was seen. The body was clothed in a black short pants and a vest. The body was photographed and was later escorted to Bartica Regional Hospital where it was pronounced dead,” Police said on Wednesday.

The body is currently awaiting transportation to the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home for storage and a post-mortem examination. An investigation has been launched.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Attorney General Anil Nandlall has rubbished claims by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton that there is a poll done by the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) which shows that the APNU/AFC Opposition will defeat the PPP/C at the next elections.

During his weekly programme, Issues in The News, Nandlall, who is a Central Executive Member of the PPP/C, denied the existence of any such poll, and called out Norton for fabricating this claim.

“This obviously is a concoction of his… I don’t know of any poll that was done. But I don’t know which pollster can come to a conclusion [that the] APNU/AFC at this point in time or any point in the near future is likely to beat the PPP at any elections… It’s either that he [Norton] invents these things, or he is so gullible that anyone can concoct a lie, irrespective of how outrageous the lie may sound to an objective listener or bystander, and he believes the lie. And what is worse, he regurgitates it publicly,” the Attorney General posited.

During his press conference on Tuesday, Norton claimed that “…the last poll showed that the combined APNU/AFC will beat the PPP at the next elections.” However, despite being continually pressed by a reporter, he refused to divulge any other details about this alleged poll.

“If I tell you my source, the persons in the PPP will be dealt with… It’s protecting the people who divulged it that makes it a source of privacy… Most political parties will do a poll, and based on the poll, they will work out the way forward, et cetera. And there are times when they wouldn’t publish it and there are times when, in the case of the PPP, they publish it, putting different statistics than what actually occurred,” the Opposition Leader alleged.Norton was then asked that if this “poll” is showing a victory for the Coalition Opposition, then why has the party not taken a decisive decision on contesting the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE) that are slated for March 13, 2023.

There is uncertainty over whether the APNU/AFC would participate in the upcoming polls.While the Norton-led APNU faction of the Opposition has remained tightlipped on its participation in the LGE, the AFC said its Central Executive is yet to make a decision. Moreover, the minority Coalition partner is also considering whether to contest the elections together or on its own.

Norton, in responding to the reporter, contended that the Opposition would beat the ruling PPP/C “much more handsomely” if there is a clean voters’ list – something which the Coalition has been pushing for.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has already explained that it is guided only by the constitutional and legal provisions, which do not allow it to remove names from the voters’ list. It pointed to the recently concluded Claims and Objections exercise for the Opposition to use to object to the presence of those names that bloat the list. However, the APNU/AFC had refused to participate in the exercise, and even threatened to boycott the LGE.

But AG Nandlall has underscored the importance of the local government polls.“Local governance and local government are of crucial importance, not only for the democracy of any country, but for grassroots representation, for governance at the level of the community; and it is that platform that allows the ordinary Guyanese to participate in the governance structure [and] play a real and true part in the political and administrative management of local affairs within the legal structure. The process is intended to produce a local cadre of leadership,” he explained.

Moreover, Nandlall went on to express the view that the APNU/AFC Coalition are at their “lowest ebb” within the decade, and cannot get their act together when it comes to anything, including their internal affairs. This was in response to Norton’s claim that the Opposition can “beat” the PPP/C.

“Whether they boycott the elections, whether they participate in the elections, we know that they are going to get a beating… We also know that they are afraid of the elections because it will delude them of all the ‘fat talk’ that we are hearing… they are mortally afraid,” the AG has said.

“Whether the APNU/AFC contests the elections as a collective or as individual parties, or whether they do not will not affect the credibility of the elections, neither will it affect the legality of the elections. It will have devastating political consequences for those who choose not to participate,” the Attorney General has asserted.

The long-overdue LGE is constitutionally due every two years in Guyana, but had been delayed over the past two years. At the last local government polls, held in November 2018, the then PPP/C Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, in which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs.

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