Doobay Medical Centre expanding – public/private partnership welcomed

President Donald Ramotar was today given a firsthand look at the new batch of equipment donated to the Doobay Medical Centre as it seeks to strengthen its laboratory testing capacity to treat related ailments associated with renal failure.

The equipment that assists in medical examination of a person’s kidney, liver and other bodily organ function was donated by the Hamilton HealthSciences and its affiliate the McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada.

The upgrade is part of the centre’s vision, articulated by its founder Dr. Budhendra Doobay, to expand services and improve the quality of health care delivered to Guyanese patients at a cost affordable to them.

President Donald Ramotar inspecting lab equipment at the Doobay Medical Centre

With dialysis costing about $36,000 for one of three sessions patients are required to undertake, the Doobay Medical Centre Inc, a private sector led initiative opened in January 2012 offering dialysis treatment. The centre at Annandale on the East Coast Demerara, offers dialysis at a reasonable cost of $15,000 per session and free of cost to those genuinely in need, but cannot afford it.

More than 35 percent of the centre’s patients are granted amnesty from medical fees, Dr Doobay said, as he joined President Donald Ramotar and representatives from the Hamilton HealthSciences and McMaster University in turning the sod for the facility’s extension.

“Dialysis patients don’t only have kidney disease; they come with a gamut of other diseases. They have heart diseases, they are diabetics, they get stroke… health care should be extended to every person despite their affordability,” Dr Doobay said.

The centre’s capacity to manage and treat patients with the aforementioned ailments has been the premise on which it plans to expand into a research centre that helps in the early detection and treatment of chronic illnesses.

President Donald Ramotar joins Dr. Budhendra Doobay, representatives of the Hamilton Health Sciences and its affiliate McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada in turning to sod for the extension of the Doobay Medical Centre

Among the plans are clinical studies to identify the patient’s genetic components and in so doing trace the origin of chronic ailments such as diabetes, which Dr Doobay said, is prevalent among Guyanese of East Indian descent and hypertension among Guyanese of African descent.

Cardiovascular and cancer detection clinics, with support from specialists in areas such as colonoscopy are also among the plans of the centre, Dr Doobay said.

Quality health care is also a priority for the Government and will be given a boost with the specialty that will be built at Liliendaal.

President Ramotar said while the government is committed, it is also supportive of private groups and individuals like Dr. Doobay, committed to the same goals and willing to develop through partnerships.

A Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between the Doobay Medical Centre and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to build on partnerships in the health sector.