Premised on a need to address the nurse to patient ratio, the local Ministry of Health has for the past few years been seeking to increase its intake of students at the country’s nursing schools. Currently Guyana’s nurse to patient ratio stands at about 11 to 10,000, according to Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Shamdeo Persaud.“Nurses are quite a critical part of any health system, and the ratio that we have right now is really not very good. In most other countries the ratio is beyond what we have…they certainly have beyond 200, and in some cases even up to 500 nurses per 10,000 population.”Dr. Persaud explained that the Ministry has recognised the need to “strike a balance” when it comes to training health professionals, even as he pointed out that adequate health services are dependent on trained health professionals being in place.“Unless you have the trained health professionals, it is sometimes very difficult to really ensure that you are getting the kind of messages and services out there,” he asserted.Against this background, the CMO revealed that the Ministry had for some years been working tirelessly to increase its quota of health professionals, particularly nurses. This move,Cheap Jerseys, he said, was evident by Government’s investment in the expansion and addition of a number of health facilities and services across the country, which was designed to ensure equity in health care delivery.As such the need for more health professionals had become a glaring requirement.“We found that we really didn’t have the manpower to run our facilities with the rate of nurses that were being produced by our country’s nursing schools. In the past we were hovering over about 40 to 50 nurses per year.”Over the past few years there has been a marked increase in the numbers produced by the country’s nursing schools – the Georgetown School of Nursing, the New Amsterdam School of Nursing and the Charles Roza School of Nursing. The privately-operated St Joseph Mercy Hospital also facilitates a nursing programme of its own.According to Dr. Persaud, “the efforts toward developing the training capacity has been one that is really noble in the sense that we really want to bring it to a stage where we can provide all the services.”He did however acknowledge that there are limits to capacities, which by extension could have curtailed the number of applicants accepted for training. In light of this, he said additional classroom spaces have been acquired, among them the former Guyana Water Incorporated head office at Fort Street,Wholesale Jerseys From China, Kingston, Georgetown.This location now complements that of the Georgetown School of Nursing situated at East Street. Further,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, Dr. Persaud disclosed that nursing schools at New Amsterdam and Linden have additional resources in place, thus they now have a greater capacity to train more nurses.More TutorsAn increase in nursing students has expectedly raised the question of the need for more tutors, Dr. Persaud noted, even as he insisted that “unless you are placed in an environment where you can actually teach, you really wouldn’t be able to develop your skills. So what comes first? Do we stop everything and train tutors slowly?”According to the CMO,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, over the past few years the Ministry has trained several tutors, but the number of students at that time did not require the service of an increased number of tutors. In essence,Wholesale NFL Jerseys Authentic, he said that the Ministry at the time was promoting out-migration, which has also been affecting the nursing population.However, with the increased intake of students, he revealed that there is currently a demand for tutors, adding that suitably qualified persons have been coming forward.“It is now a demand-driven service…Some (tutors) start by simply teaching a few special courses and then they become stimulated to move on and expand their range…so what we had with this tutor/students situation has really been a bit of a chicken and egg situation.”Among those providing the tutoring service are doctors who, according to Dr. Persaud,nfl jerseys china, have special modules within the nursing school curricula. He emphasised that the increased quota of students in no way affects the existing tutoring capability.

Following a meeting with officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) the Alliance for Change (AFC) is uncertain of how the electoral authority will treat a number of concerns the political party has expressed.The AFC had said at a previous briefing that it is perturbed over the postponement of the claims and objections period,NFL Jerseys China, which it said has pushed the earliest possible date for elections to a later time, in spite of previous assurances by GECOM it would not be so.The AFC met Tuesday with GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally and other members of the commission.“We regret to report that we left the meeting not knowing whether the several issues we had written GECOM about would be favourably considered,” the Party statedThe AFC said its major concern was that it is not being treated as an independent political party which is provided with all the material necessary for scrutiny of electoral lists in every district, so that proper claims and objections can be made. The party asserted that it should be given all the documented information given to the PPP/C and the PNCR.The AFC had requested – and said it was denied – electronic copies of the list of registered electors that is convenient in quickly seeking out names of persons who should be placed for a district“Even more contentious was the refusal of the GECOM to acknowledge that the electronic copy PLE (Preliminary List of Electors) given to us was in a format not conducive to making quick checks of persons’ names.”Earlier this month, GECOM had increased the hours for persons to register their claims and objections on the national voters’ list by one hour during the week, but the AFC insists that is not enough.In a notice in a supplement to the Official Gazette on May 10, the Elections Commission announced an amendment to the opening hours of Registration Offices from Monday to Friday, moving the time to 9:00 hrs to 19:00hrs.This amends a May 6 notice in the Official Gazette by GECOM that had put the Monday to Friday opening hours as 10:00 hrs to 19:00 hrs.The opening time on Saturdays and Sundays remain at 10:00 hrs to 14:00 hrs. Holidays are excluded, and opening time for Registration Sub-Offices also remains the same at 15:30 hrs to 19:00 hrs from Monday to Friday, and 10:00 hrs to 14:00 hrs on Saturday and Sunday.The extra hour added for claims and objections from Monday to Friday at Registration Offices essentially totals 23 hours because there were 23 working week days from publication of the amendment,Wholesale Adidas Hockey Jerseys, May 10, to the end of the time to inspect the list of registered persons, June 12.“But that’s just one day,” AFC presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan told this newspaper in an invited comment.He added, “We feel that is too minimal an amount of time given the serious grievances we have [with the list], we feel it should have been extended by at least two weeks. But if that is the position of GECOM, there is nothing we can do.”The party contended that a rescheduling of the start date for claims and objections will result in the earliest possible date for general elections being pushed back.“The AFC is not comfortable with the unilateral reduction of the now commenced claims and objections period from 42 days to 32 days,” AFC stated,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping,He added, “We feel that it is too minimal an amount of time given the serious grievances we have [with the list],NFL Jerseys Cheap, we feel it should have been extended by at least two weeks. But if that is the position of GECOM,Jerseys NFL China, there is nothing we can do.”At its weekly media briefing last Wednesday, the AFC had expressed dissatisfaction with the postponement of the earlier scheduled period for interested parties to check the listed of registered persons and make known their claims and objections to the names of persons on the list,NFL Jerseys From China, or the absence of names.