(Guyana Chronicle)

THE GREENHEART Medical University, established in Guyana in 2004, is now under management of a new Board of Directors, and is fully geared to continue providing top-quality training for both locals and non-nationals who are interested in becoming medical doctors.

The University, which has an Office in Croal Street, moved into a spacious building at 139 Fourth Street, Campbellville last week, and has begun enrolment for a five-year pre-Medical Doctor’s programme and a four-year medical programme.
The five-year programme is for students who have CXC qualifications. It involves them having to complete one year of Pre-Med training before they can enter the four-year programme.
The four-year programme is designed for graduates from the University of Guyana in areas such as biology, chemistry, and medical technology.
The GMU is now restructuring a training programme for nurses, and developing a programme for pharmacists.
But these are yet to come on stream.
The university’s nursing programme is being revised with a view to taking it to the United States National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) standard, a standard accepted by North American medical institutions.
The disclosures about the GMU and its current activities and plans for the future were made last week by Academic Counsellor/Lecturer Dr. Neil Jafer, and new Registrar, Mr. Sharir Chan. Chan, also the Chief Operations Officer of the Guyana Medical Relief Inc (GMRI), spoke about the recent changes at the GMU, aimed at making the operations of the school more efficient, and its training more innovative.
He disclosed that, starting last year October, the school had experienced some internal problems at the level of management, and changes have since been made.
He said: “Since those problems were resolved, we have been doing a lot of house cleaning. We have been doing a lot of regulatory things in terms of getting our agreements with the hospitals concretised, finding good reputable lecturers and so on.
“We have retained the name, but we are really a new GMU, and we are now in an even stronger position to deliver on our mandate,” he said.
He stressed that the GMU is registered for accreditation with the National Accreditation Council, and is working within the guidelines of that body.
He explained: “Accreditation is a process. It takes some time, but we are getting there.”
Nevertheless, nine medical doctors, six of them Guyanese and one each from the U.S., Canada and Nigeria, successfully completed the four-year programme of the GMU and passed the final examination in May last.
The graduation ceremony was held at the Princess International Hotel at Providence, East Bank Demerara on May 9, 2012.
It was announced then that though the university had produced many other graduates, the ceremony in May was the first ever for the GMU, since many of  the students were foreigners and had opted to forego that formality in the interest of getting back home as early as possible.
The GMU’s medical programme is catering for students hailing from Nigeria, India, Canada, Nepal and the Caribbean.
Dr. Jafer said that to date,the GMU has been able to graduate three batches of medical doctors and one batch of nurses.
Dr. Jafer, one of the six Guyanese doctors to have graduated from the GMU last May, said that the GMU decision to move to a more spacious building last week had been prompted by the high rate of enrolment for the new school year.
Dr. Jafer said that the GMU is developing its own lab facilities, and plans in the near future to build a campus and a teaching hospital to complement the campus.
Chan disclosed that the current Board of Directors of the GMU includes Dr Reza Chowdhury as Chairman; Dr Arif Syed as Chief Academic Officer, Mr Rajiv Radhakrishnanan as Chief Financial Officer, and Mr Sharir Chan as Registrar.
He said the GMU is constantly developing new partnerships and affiliations with leading institutions around the world, involved in health sciences education and research towards the vision of becoming an internationally recognised regional research institution
The university is also sticking to its policy of subsidising local students with a yearly rate of US $3,300 per year, as against US $13,500 per year for non-nationals.
Chan said: “We have a vision that the GMU can be the vehicle through which Guyanese can graduate with quality experience; quality clinical exposures via longitudinal clinical care experiences, instead of them going to other countries.
“We want to ensure that all the amenities available overseas are available here in Guyana. Rather than students having to go abroad, the GMU wants to be there for them to remain right here at home, where they can get the experience and range that they can get when they are abroad,” Chan said.