It was announced by the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) on Thursday that it had facilitated a landmark local investment by Neurospine Services Inc to the tune of $1b (roughly US$5m).
Go-Invest said in a release that the investment is expected to generate more than 50 new jobs and will significantly boost specialised medical care.
The investment will establish a state-of-the-art Institute of Neurological Sciences and Rehabilitative Centre, with a second phase to include a 150-room nursing home and a medical storage and logistics complex. The facilities will offer advanced services in neurosciences, brain and spinal care, rehabilitative medicine, and geriatric nursing home care. Some of the spinal and brain care services to be offered have to currently be sourced overseas. The institution will also include a dedicated rehabilitation centre and a paediatric care institute. Specialised diagnostic equipment will include what is reputed to be the region’s first GE Healthcare SIGNA Champion 1.5T wide-bore MRI machine, fully powered by Artificial Intelligence technology. Construction is progressing on schedule, with the facility expected to officially open by mid-2026. Go-Invest must be complimented for its work in putting this investment together.
At the helm of this centre is neurosurgeon Dr Amarnauth Dukhi whose work here in neurosurgery has attracted plaudits. In an interview with Stabroek News in 2015 Dr Dukhi said that he had dreamt of becoming a doctor since the age of seven. He was subsequently awarded a Government of Guyana scholarship to pursue a Bachelor of Medicine programme in Cuba and then specialised in neurosurgery. He completed his residency in Cuba, having performed over 500 spinal and brain surgeries. He has since helmed delicate neurosurgeries and helped to restore quality of life to patients.
Dr. Dukhi must be congratulated for pursuing this project. It is an example of what happens when opportunities are taken advantage of. With Cuba facing severe geopolitical and economic pressure today, Havana’s generous offering of scholarships to students in so many fields over decades must be lauded and hopefully Guyana can reciprocate in some meaningful way.
While it is not yet clear where the investment for the facility is coming from it is the type of new horizon project that the country sorely needs to reorient itself from the all-embracing oil and gas industry. Oil and gas economies must immediately begin using their petroleum revenues to radically redirect the economy to escape the dangers of both the Resource Curse and the Dutch Disease. The oil and gas economy has to veer in the direction of projects like Dr Dukhi’s which create higher paying and specialised jobs such as in neurosurgery. There will also be clear opportunities for medical tourism from the Caribbean and further afield.
While there have been bold initiatives in the agro-processing and other sectors they are not of the number and magnitude required to catapult Guyana into the trajectory and orbit to escape some of the evident fallouts of an oil and gas economy that is leaving many people behind.
If, however, the government’s policies towards the private sector in this year’s budget and previous ones and Go-Invest’s intermediation are yielding investments of the type that Dr Dukhi will head then this must be recognized and applauded.
While this will be a standout investment, there are still many questions about the state of primary healthcare, as these columns have recently addressed, and the responsiveness of public facilities to these. When Dr Dukhi’s venture takes off it can be folded into non-traditional tourism opportunities which the Ministry of Tourism should be addressing. Medical tourists require an entirely different approach and range of services compared to the traditional tourist.
There will be great interest in Dr Dukhi’s venture particularly from those here who require advanced neurosurgical and spinal care. The venture is also a signal of the type of the economy that Guyana should be embracing more closely even as it tries to manage the sprawl of the oil and gas industry.
