The swift and compassionate intervention of President Dr. Irfaan Ali in covering the outstanding medical expenses of Ms. Jillicia Leitch deserves not only acknowledgment but genuine gratitude. When a Head of State moves immediately upon learning that a citizen is in crisis, that is leadership in its most human form, and VPAC is proud to have played a role in bringing this matter to his attention.
Ms. Leitch faced costs exceeding US$10,270 for urgent facial reconstructive surgery in the United States, procedures that were simply unavailable to her at home. Because VPAC Chairman Mr. Dorwain Bess was able to reach the President directly, her burden was lifted. Her family can breathe again. That matters enormously, and President Ali deserves every word of thanks extended to him.
But gratitude, when it is honest, must also be forward-looking.
Ms. Leitch is not alone. Across Guyana, there are citizens, children born with conditions requiring specialist intervention, adults confronting cancers beyond the capacity of local facilities, elderly men and women needing procedures unavailable within our borders, who have no VPAC chairman to call and no direct line to a president. They suffer in silence. Some of them do not survive that silence.
Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world. Our oil and natural resource wealth is generating revenues that, managed wisely, represent a generational opportunity to build public systems worthy of the people who own those resources. A national Medical Overseas Assistance Programme is not a luxury in that context. It is an obligation.
Such a programme would establish a clear, accessible, and transparent pathway through which any Guyanese citizen requiring medical care unavailable domestically could apply for government-sponsored treatment abroad. Eligibility would be grounded in one thing only: medical need and Guyanese citizenship. Not age. Not sex. Not race. Not income. Not who you know.
The President has already shown he possesses the will to act when suffering is placed before him. We ask him now to build the structure that ensures no Guyanese citizen must wait for someone to place their suffering before the right person.
Our resources belong to all of us. So too our protection.
SOURCE: VPAC Guyana, Opinion, Guyana1news, April 26, 2025
