With the construction of nine new hospitals slated to commence this year, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony on Friday urged medical graduates of the Texila American University to pursue specialist training as many opportunities will be available in the health sector.
The Health Minister made the remarks while delivering the feature address at the university’s graduation ceremony which was held at their Providence, East Bank Demerara campus.
“We’ll be doing a specialised hospital for children and high-risk mothers and we would require people not just to take the first step as you have done … but we would want to see you go down that journey of having the specialisation,” Dr. Anthony told the graduates.
He highlighted that once persons would have undertaken specialised training, they would be absorbed into the system as there is a need for persons who can provide specialized services.
“If we are going to lift the quality of service that we are delivering in this country, it would mean that we would need more consultants, more specialists, more people to be able to help us to develop that kind of quality that we are looking for,” he said.
The Health Minister told the graduates that they are entering the field of medicine at an interesting time when lots of opportunities will be available for them and the government looks forward to collaborating with them.
A total of 62 persons graduated from the university on Friday; 38 in doctor of medicine, 17 in public health, six in nursing and one in business administration.
Dr. Anthony reminded the graduates that the reward in the field of medicine is not about “the big money” but the satisfaction of helping people and charged them to maintain the enthusiasm and passion for helping others throughout their careers.
“When you work with patients and they come in and they are the most vulnerable and you are able to do something to alleviate the pain or to change their circumstances you get gratification from that,” he said.
The graduates all shared messages of perseverance which led to them achieving their end results. The best graduating student in the doctor of medicine program, Ashwant Mohabir, reminisced on the continuous effort and struggle it took to complete his degree, something which he said paid off tenfold.
“If there is one thing about these efforts and struggles that we have endured is that they have paid off tenfold and now we stand on the precipice of joining one of the most noble professions in the medical field and giving service to something greater than us – humanity,” Mohabir said.
