Compared with other neighbouring countries, Guyana ranks poorly in regard to basic health indicators.
[2] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 76.3% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.
[2] Most of Guyana's population resides in the coastal plain, with flooding cycles that have long hindered sanitation efforts.
Mortality rates of Europeans were generally attributed to inability to handle tropical climate and its associated diseases such as Yellow Fever.
Abolitionist interests in Britain began influencing laws in the colonies such as 1825 legislation that stipulated proprietors must provide a 'sick house, furnished with proper conveniences and attendance for the sick', an 1834 Medical Ordinance requiring weekly doctor visits to plantations, and later the 1847 Hospital Ordinance.
[9][10] The delivery of health services is provided at five different levels in the public sector: This system is structured so that its proper functioning depends intimately on a process of referrals.
The Ministry of Health provides financial assistance to patients requiring such treatment, priority being given to children whose condition can be rehabilitated with significant improvements to their quality of life.
The Ministry of Health and Labour is responsible for the funding of the National Referral Hospital in Georgetown, which has recently been made a public corporation managed by an independent Board.
There are no mental health consumer or family associations in Guyana, except for Salvation Army and Phoenix Recovery, two NGOs that focus on substance use disorders.
NPH services are heavily reliant on pharmacologic intervention and most of the beds are long-stay patients who do not necessarily require institutional care.
Amerindians, the predominant group in the country's interior, have the highest rates of poverty and exhibit some of the lowest health indicators in Guyana.
In Guyana the number of midwives per 1,000 live births is unavailable and the lifetime risk of death for pregnant women is 1 in 150.
[16] Fertility rates per location (2014):[5] The top ten causes of death according to the CDC (2010):[4] The ten leading causes of morbidity (illness) for all age groups are, in decreasing order: malaria; acute respiratory infections; symptoms, signs and ill-defined or unknown conditions; hypertension; accident and injuries; acute diarrhoeal disease; diabetes mellitus; worm infestation; rheumatic arthritis; and mental and nervous disorders.