GEORGETOWN, Guyana – President Dr. Irfaan Ali has lauded the country’s health sector that is now showing substantial improvements based on data for some key indicators.
According to Ali, Guyana has made some strides in reducing child mortality over the past few years.
“Child mortality has slowly improved and is now the lowest it has ever been: 13 (deaths) per 1,000 births versus 19 (deaths) per 1,000 births in 2020,” he told reporters at a press conference here on Wednesday .
Essentially, this means that fewer children are dying at a young age (between zero to five years).
The President also said that more low-weight neonatal babies, pregnant women and new mothers are surviving.
He linked these gains to improvements in the healthcare sector and posited that the government will continue pursuing these improvements by investing more in new, modern facilities, training workers and ensuring there is a more efficient delivery of services.
According to Ali, some plans are already underway with the government funding six new regional hospitals across the country and upgrading several others.
New specialty facilities are also being developed as the government expands training programs for nurses and other healthcare workers.
Overall, Ali believes the country can increase its life expectancy to 75 years by 2030. This expectancy refers to the average number of years a person can expect to live and usually reflects the state of a country’s health sector.
As it is now, he said Guyana’s life expectancy has increased from 68 years in 2020 to 70 years in 2023.
