International Health: Guyana and the Caribbean

Georgetown, Guyana – Midway Specialty Care Center

MOTI RAMGOPAL MD FACP FIDSA CPI – RAJA TALATI MD – DEV PERSAUD MD– RUTH RAMOS MD –KAMELA BEMAUL-SUKHU MD

125 A Barrack and Parade Streets, Kingston, Georgetown
+592-223-2125 (CLINIC) / +592-223-2126 (PHARMACY)

Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM | Saturday 9AM-12PM

We offer specialized consults as well as telemedicine visits with doctors of other specialties in the US.

Call us to book your appointment today

125 A Barrack and Parade Streets, Kingston, Georgetown

+592-223-2125 (CLINIC) / +592-223-2126 (PHARMACY)

COVID-19 Antigen Testing Available at Midway Specialty Care Center! We are a Ministry of Health approved Antigen Testing site and all of our testing staff have been trained and certified.
Results are available within 1 hour.

To book an appointment call us at (592)223-2125.

Midway Care Specialty Clinic

Infectious Diseases, Hematology, Internal Medicine, OBYGN

Our dedicated team of physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and pharmacists provide comprehensive care with dignity to those living with an infectious disease, hematological issue, illness, or patients in need of general wellness care. Midway Specialty Care Center’s (MSCC) focus is to treat the whole patient, including a patient’s physical and prescription health care needs. MSCC patients have access to prescription medication management, nutrition services and wellness, acute and chronic care, infusion services, laboratory services, as well as access to treatment and drugs through the clinic’s in-house pharmacy.

Midway Specialty Care Center Pharmacy

Come check us out today at our 125 A Barrack & Parade Streets, Kingston location! We are open Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM and on Saturdays from 9AM-12PM.

For any inquiries you may have, send us a message on Facebook, send us an email at pharmacyguyana@midwaycare.org OR give us a call at (592) 223-2126

Moti Ramgopal, MD FIDSA FACP,

Moti Ramgopal | MD, FACP, FIDSA is a Consultant Physician and Director of Associates in Infectious Diseases; Founder of Midway Immunology and Research Center, Founder and Chief Medical Officer for the not-for-profit Midway Specialty Care Center and Founder of Midway Primary Care, a not-for-profit primary care practice; Associate Professor of Medicine at Florida State University Medical School; and founder of Asvins.org.

Dr. Ramgopal received his medical degree from University of the West Indies Faculty of Medical Sciences and completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at Bon Secours Hospital in Michigan. He then completed a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Jackson Memorial and the University of Miami School of Medicine. He has been in practice for more than 20 years. Dr. Ramgopal is Board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease.

Dr. Ramgopal serves as a Certified Principal Investigator for clinical research. His studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Journal of AIDS and IDSA’s The Journal of Infectious Diseases. His Midway Immunology and Research Center clinical team treated 300+ HIV and Hepatitis C patients for free at a savings to the community of more than $5,000,000 to date, giving patients access to cutting-edge treatments not available to the general public. Dr. Ramgopal was awarded the Top Physician honor by Treasure Coast Newspapers in 2014, received the Frist Humanitarian Award from HCA, and is a winner of FSU Guardian of the Mission Award.

Midway Specialty Care Center’s (MSCC) focus is to treat the whole patient, including a patient’s physical and mental health care needs. MSCC patients have access to in-house behavioral health care services, prescription medication management, nutrition services and wellness, acute and chronic care, as well as access to treatment and drugs through the clinic’s in-house pharmacy. Dr. Ramgopal is also recognized as a top Infectious Disease Doctor in the country by US News and World Reports. See his currently enrolling clinical trials: www.midwayresearch.org

Raja Talati, MD

Raja Talati, MD received his medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine and completed an Internship and Residency at Jackson Park Hospital in Chicago, IL in Family Medicine. Dr. Talati, MD serves as the Assistant Chief Medical Officer of Midway Specialty Care Center, Inc. in Florida. He is involved with the development of the telemedicine program so that patients with limited access to specialty care would be better served. He sees patients at Midway Primary Care Center in Fort Pierce.

For his country he currently holds the position of Chief of Aerospace Medicine for the 927th AMDS at MacDill Air Force Base. He has about 400 hours of flight time in the C-17 an KC-135.

Since completing medical school, he earned his Masters In Health Information Systems and is pursuing his MBA with a specialization in Healthcare Analytics.

When not working; he enjoys outdoor activities and traveling with his family.

Ruth Ramos, MD

Ruth Ramos, MD is Cuban by birth and graduated from the University of Guyana in 2000. In 2003, Dr. Ramos moved from the Internal Medicine Department at Georgetown Public Hospital to the Genitourinary Medicine Clinic and then again to the National Care and Treatment Center (NCTC).

Through the years she has worked closely and developed a relationship with the Internal Medicine and ID Department, the TB clinic, OB/GYN and the Pediatric Department at GPHC. At a national level she has been part of various working groups for the development and review of guidelines and other relevant documents for the National Aids Program and Ministry of Health. Dr. Ramos is actively involved in the training and mentorship of medical students, interns medical officers and residents. From 2010 to 2018, Dr. Ramos was the director of the NCTC, the largest treatment site in Guyana. At this time Dr. Ramos continues to serve as a physician offering care for HIV and other STI’S on adults and pediatric populations, management of comorbidities, cervical cancer screening and cryotherapy.

Dr. Kamela Bemaul-Sukhu

As a young doctor in internal medicine Kamela Bemaul-Sukhu was troubled by the many patients with blood disorders who at times lay in hospital beds for long periods with no real help given to them; this drove her to become specialised and today she is the only hematologist in the country. Dr Bemaul-Sukhu graduated in 2003 and worked as a general practitioner in internal medicine for a number of years at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) as there was no residency programme at the time specialising in internal medicine. Seven years ago, the first residency programme was initiated in internal medicine and infectious disease and all of those on staff for a while entered. After three years of training, she became specialised. A year later she went on to the fellowship in hematology at the McMaster University in Canada. At Midway, Dr Bemaul-Sukhu’s service is outpatient and she has a clinic from Monday to Wednesday where she sees patients with bleeding disorders.

Nurse Lois Candace Barrow

Nurse Barrow is our Nurse at Midway Specialty Care Center- Guyana. She began her nursing career in 1996 at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1999 as the Best Graduating Student. Nurse Barrow was subsequently employed at the Georgetown Public Hospital and the Dialysis Center. She says her nursing career was greatly boosted when she became employed by FXB (Francois Xavier Bagnoud) Center in 2008. The FXB agency was funded by PEPFAR and the program in Guyana was specifically geared at improving the care and treatment of people living with HIV (PLWHIV). Here is where her experience in caring with PLWHIV began. She describes this experience as being transformative and really opening up her perspectives. After the end of the FXB program, Nurse Barrow was employed by the Ministry of Health under the Pre-Cancer Screening Programme to perform Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA)- this project was funded by Johns Hopkins University for countries with low resource settings. In 2012, she decided to further her education and applied to the University of Guyana for the BS Nursing programme. She graduated in 2014. Nurse Barrow is the first Nurse employed by Midway Specialty Care Center, and has grown with our organization from the very beginning. She is an integral part of the MSCCG patient care team.

Fariana Khan

Fariana Khan is our clinical pharmacist at Midway Specialty Care Center- Guyana. After graduating from high school, she was placed on work study in the pharmacy department at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) which is the country’s largest referral hospital. This is where her interest peaked in Pharmacy. After graduating from Queen’s College, she applied to the University of Guyana to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy. She completed her degree in 2017 and did one year of internship at the GPHC on her journey to becoming a practicing pharmacist. During her internship she rotated through the various pharmacy departments as well as rotating on the wards with the hospital’s doctors to design patient treatment regiments and monitor any adverse effects. While doing her internship, she worked part time at a community pharmacy. After becoming a licensed pharmacist in 2019, she applied to the St.Joseph Mercy Hospital where I worked in both the inpatient and outpatient departments. After her stint at Mercy Hospital, Fariana joined the Midway team. She is the lead pharmacist at the Guyana office and

Debra Blake

Debra Blake is the newest member of our Midway Guyana team. She is a University of Guyana trained medical technologist and a certified phlebotomist. She is both skilled and experienced in clinical laboratory science and standards and quality. She values confidentiality, reliability and the patient experience very highly. According to Debra, “I always keep my patient’s best interest at heart!”.

Annastacia McLennon

Annastacia or Anna as she is fondly known by patients and our team is our medical receptionist and the first face you will see as you enter the Midway Specialty Care Center Guyana Office. Anna is a certified medical transcriptionist by profession and has many years of experience working in the field of healthcare. She currently handles all of Midway’s patient appointments and follow up scheduling, as well as plays an integral role in the development of our in-house electronic health records (EHR) system.

Consultant Physicians

Dr. Kamela Bemaul-Sukhu- Internal Medicine/Hematology (available by appointment)

Dr. Dev Persaud- Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases (available by appointment)

Dr. Padmini Singh- OBGYN (available by appointment)

Dr. Radha Sookraj- OBGYN- available by appointment (Wednesday-Friday 3PM-5PM & Saturdays 9AM-12PM)

Dr. Kaaleshwar Ramcharran- Orthopedics- available by appointment (Thursdays 9AM-12PM)

Dr. Michael Chin- Cardiology- available by appointment (Wednesdays 2-4PM)

Services Highlight

Telemedicine Consultations Available- We offer telemedicine consultation with specialists in the US, in collaboration with our Guyana team. Through this service we are able to consult on specialized cases, provide second opinions and work along with the physicians in Guyana to provide you with the best all round care.

COVID-19 Antigen Testing- We are a Ministry of Health approved COVID-19 Antigen Testing site and our test results are approved for travel to the United States. Our staff have been trained and certified by the relevant authorities. We aim to have the results available to you in the shortest possible time. We accept walk-in clients, but pre-booked appointments are encouraged for the fastest turnaround.

Laboratory Services- We are now pleased to offer in-house laboratory services at our location, including CBCs and Biochemistry labs. We are also equipped to send out samples to our Florida location for any specialized testing that may be required. Additionally, our lab can facilitate the review of pathological samples by sending them to our pathology lab in Florida.

Rapid Testing- We perform rapid tests for a wide range of conditions such as: HIV, Hepatitis B&C, Dengue Fever, Leptospirosis, Typhoid, H. Pylori and Pregnancy (HCG test)

In-House Pharmacy- Our In-house pharmacy supports our integrated patient care experience.

According to the World Health Organization, the country is in epidemiological transition. The non-communicable diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality. In 2012, based on the Pan America Health Organization (PAHO) Mortality Data, non-communicable diseases accounted for the first five leading causes of death. Violence and injuries and intentional self-harm also contribute significantly to the mortality rate. There is still a significant burden of communicable diseases. Human Immunodeficiency Virus, influenza and pneumonia were the sixth and ninth leading causes of death respectively in 2012. Data from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) show a reduction in the incidence of malaria and filaria in 2015; however, in 2015 the incidence of HIV was higher than in 2014 and tuberculosis incidence increased from 73/100.000 in 2014 to 75/100,000 in 2015. There is a very successful immunization programme and trained health personnel attend nearly all births. A progress report on the MDGs in 2011 indicated that the following targets had been met: halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger; education, gender equality; reducing the under 5 mortality rate by two-thirds; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental stability and water and sanitation.

See latest data: https://www.paho.org/salud-en-las-americas-2017/?p=2635

HIV Statistics: https://pancap.org/pancap-data/guyana/

Caricom Data from The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA, the new single regional public health agency for the Caribbean.

The Agency rationalizes public health arrangements in the Region by combining the functions of five Caribbean Regional Health Institutes (RHIs) into a single agency. CARICOM consists of: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.

See Latest country-by-country HIV breakdown: https://pancap.org/data-reports/country-data/

For up to date information on COVID-19 and actions taken to combat the disease in Guyana please follow the link below or call the hotlines.

Testimonials

"The doctor spent an enormous amount of time going over his records and truly explaining to us what was happening, unlike any other doctor."

Matt M.

"Thank you Dr Ramgopal and staff for providing healing hands. It is rare that you find such kind and dedicated people. I'm forever grateful."

Steven C.

"You saved MY LIFE. Period. Thank you for taking good care of us. To your patients, you are a hero."

David H.

"I admire your work and committment to being a healer, and am forever grateful. You have aligned yourself as a top professional in the area."

Jon M.