The completion of the modern US$6.9 million College of Medical Sciences building at the University of Guyana (UG) is the culmination of hard work and visionary leadership, Deputy Vice Chancellor Dr Emmanuel Cummings said Tuesday.
“On this historic day, the annals of the University of Guyana will record a quantum leap in the delivery of medical education at the university,” Dr Cummings said.
The facility was built to include a lecture theatre to accommodate 200 students, a fully furnished skills laboratory and various labs, such as anatomy, biochemistry, histology, and hematology. The college was built by Chinese company, Shandong Hi-Speed Dejian Group Co, with funding from the Government of Guyana and the World Bank. Construction started in November 2023 but the project has been in the making for over a decade.
President Irfaan Ali with medical students at the college (Photo: Ministry of Education/April 1, 2025)
The project was conceptualised in 2013 and in 2017, the project loan agreement was signed with the World Bank.
President Dr Irfaan Ali highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role in the delay of the project.
The new College of Medical Sciences is dubbed as the most modern building on campus with touchless biometric labs, a biochemistry lab along with a water treatment plant and a power plant.
The facility was built to include a lecture theatre to accommodate 200 students, a fully furnished skills laboratory and various labs, such as anatomy, biochemistry, histology, and hematology (Photo: News Room/April 1, 2025)
Programmes offered at the college include general nursing, neonatal nursing, cardiovascular nursing, emergency nursing, medicine, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, optometry, medical lab science, respiratory therapy, occupational health and safety, environmental health engineering and food and vector control.
“The medical college now must be able to produce high quality graduates – must be able to be part of an international network in which we can punch pound for pound – in which we can position ourselves as a leader.
“So, these investments are not just another piece of investment. We’re investing in the best because there is a vision behind it,” President Ali said during his remarks.
The students common area at the college (Photo: News Room/April 1, 2025)
He posited that if nurses, doctors and lab technicians all study at the same level “then you’re training them to work together.
“In medicine you have to work together, you have to understand the environment and they are all learning in this new environment that would allow them to take this into their career.”
President Irfaan Ali toured the modern College of Medical Sciences at UG (Photo: Ministry of Education/April 1, 2025)
Meanwhile, World Bank Director for Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jaime Saavedra said noted the challenge in balancing technological advancement with humanistic care.
“Guyana is already investing in sophisticated technology and artificial intelligence for diagnostic and treatment planning.
Today’s medical student must learn to leverage that technology while preserving the essential human connection that lies at the heart of healing,” Saavedra said.
(Photo: Ministry of Education/April 1, 2025)
However, he explained that most challenging is the cultivation of resilience in future medical doctors who witness suffering and even death and the need to be compassionate puts a demand on health workers and they must be prepared for that.
A lecture room at the college (Photo: News Room/April 1, 2025)
UG’s Vice Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin said while many students would have applied to the medical school in the past, they could have only accommodated about 2/3 of them.
“Now, even though we still can’t take every single person who can apply, I am happy to say that this building today allows us to take in about 40 per cent more students in the medical school than we have been able to take in,” the Vice Chancellor said.
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