Health minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy on Thursday called for the revamping of Guyana’s public health law saying modern legislation was needed to ensure the effective implementation of international health regulations.

His comment came at a sensitization workshop for port health authorities aimed at raising awareness of the International Health Regulations (IHR) in order to assist the health ministry in surveillance activities.

“Going into my 11^th year as minister of health I’ve been trying to get the public health ordinance replaced by a new prevention and protection of public health law but we’re still talking about it. The law has been drafted but the technicians are still going through it,” Dr. Ramsammy said.

According to the minister, making the implementation of IHR more effective would require more contemporary public health legislation.

“That must be a priority for Guyana in the next two years; the law has been drafted, it’s a good one and we need to accelerate the process. I wish I could say that I would end my tenure as minister of health with that.”

Drafting the law was a major accomplishment, Dr. Ramsammy said, adding that he was “saddened” that they never got it off the table. The minister said he is just waiting now to hear from his practitioners that they are not leaving out any of the good practices of the old legislation in setting up the new.

Thursday’s workshop was part of a one-week programme for the participants with them visiting various ports from Monday to Wednesday. The training ends on Friday with a half-day session on ship sanitation at PAHO, which is co-sponsoring the event with the ministry.

Participants included representatives from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport; Guyana Revenue Authority; shipping companies; Ministry of Agriculture and; Environmental Health Officers.