69 medical students set to return home to commence final year training
Georgetown, GINA, August 10, 2012 -- Source - GINA
Minister of Public Service, Dr. Jennifer Westford yesterday informed the National Assembly that 69 Guyanese medical students, who have completed their fifth year of training, will be returning home on August 14 via a chartered flight to commence their final year.
The Minister was at the time responding to a question posed by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Dr. George Norton as to how many students will be returning and what criteria was used to select those that will be returning.
Minister Westford explained that a criterion was arrived at between the Governments of Guyana and Cuba, whereby the selection will be made by the latter based on the performances of students and their geographic locations.
The reason why geographic locations are used as a determining factor is because there are seven faculties in Guyana where students will undertake their final year medical training. These faculties are located in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six which are manned by Cuban specialists.
“The names of those 69 doctors were selected by the Cuban authorities and were sent to the Government of Guyana for verification that the geographic locations were accurate,” the Public Service Minister said.
This was done and the list has since been sent back to Cuba. The 69 final year medical students will commence training at their respective faculties on August 27.
This year, 301 Cuban trained Guyanese doctors are expected to return to Guyana to deliver services, however they will be spending an additional year in Cuba to complete their rotation since that number will be overwhelming for the major health institutions in Guyana to execute the rotation process effectively.
The Cuban Scholarship Programme started in 2002 when the Cuban Government offered Guyana 350 scholarships. It was extended in 2006 when President Jagdeo and Cuba’s President Castro signed the agreement for a further 965 scholarships over the period 2006 to 2010.