Dr. Ramona Singh-Persaud

Dr. Ramona Singh-Persaud is a senior internal medicine physician at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the principal referral and teaching hospital in Guyana and the only tertiary-level institution in the country. Over a career spanning more than sixteen years, she has become one of Georgetown's most respected internists, providing specialist medical care to Guyanese patients with complex, chronic, and multi-system disease across the full breadth of internal medicine.

Dr. Singh-Persaud's professional background reflects the international training pathway followed by many of Guyana's specialist physicians. Having pursued postgraduate training in the United Kingdom, she returned to Guyana holding the prestigious MRCP (Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians), a qualification that places her among the most rigorously trained internists in the English-speaking Caribbean. Her return to Georgetown was motivated by a commitment to contributing to her home country's healthcare system at a time of growing need.

At Georgetown Public Hospital, she plays a central role in the medical ward and outpatient specialist clinic, managing a patient population that presents with conditions particularly prevalent in Guyanese society: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disease, and infectious diseases including HIV and tuberculosis. Guyana's rich Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese heritage is reflected in the disease patterns Dr. Singh-Persaud encounters daily, and she is deeply attuned to the social, cultural, and economic factors that influence health in her community.

Dr. Singh-Persaud is widely known for her patient advocacy, her accessibility to patients from rural and interior regions of Guyana who travel to Georgetown for specialist care, and her mentorship of junior doctors and nursing staff at GPHC.

Dr. Singh-Persaud completed her undergraduate medical training, earning her MBBS degree, at the University of Guyana's Faculty of Health Sciences in collaboration with regional Caribbean medical education programs. She subsequently pursued postgraduate training in the United Kingdom, completing her internal medicine residency and earning the Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP UK) — one of the most demanding and internationally recognized postgraduate medical qualifications in the English-speaking world.

Her UK training exposed her to a wide variety of complex cases across medical subspecialties, and she developed particular expertise in metabolic medicine, renal medicine, and infectious disease — areas of direct relevance to the Guyanese disease burden. Upon returning to Guyana, she completed further specialist certification through the Caribbean College of Internal Medicine and holds recognition as a Specialist in Internal Medicine by the Guyana Medical Council.

Dr. Singh-Persaud participates in ongoing continuing medical education through the Royal College of Physicians (as an international associate) and through Caribbean Health Sciences conferences.

Dr. Singh-Persaud's primary clinical focus is the management of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which represent the dominant burden at Georgetown Public Hospital's internal medicine service. She leads a structured diabetes and hypertension clinic, managing patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, and hypertensive renal disease — conditions that frequently co-exist in Guyana's patient population.

In nephrology, she provides specialist oversight for patients with chronic kidney disease, managing conservative renal care and coordinating peritoneal dialysis for patients in end-stage renal failure — a service of critical importance given Guyana's limited access to hemodialysis infrastructure.

In infectious disease, Dr. Singh-Persaud manages HIV/AIDS patients on antiretroviral therapy, tuberculosis cases (including drug-resistant TB), and tropical infections relevant to the Guyanese and Amazonian regional context. She is also experienced in the management of sickle cell disease, which affects a significant proportion of Guyana's Afro-Guyanese population. Her procedural skills include diagnostic lumbar puncture, pleural aspiration, and bedside ultrasound.

Dr. Singh-Persaud's research interests centre on the epidemiology and management of non-communicable diseases in Guyana and the wider Caribbean. She has contributed to clinical audits and outcomes studies at Georgetown Public Hospital examining glycaemic control rates, hypertension management, and chronic kidney disease progression in the local population.

She has participated in Caribbean-wide health research initiatives examining NCD burden and healthcare system capacity, presenting findings at regional health conferences. Her research is motivated by the recognition that Caribbean and South American data must inform clinical guidelines for populations whose disease profiles and social determinants of health differ from those of North American and European cohorts.

As Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America, Dr. Singh-Persaud naturally serves English-speaking patients from across the region and beyond. Georgetown Public Hospital is the country's main referral center, and Dr. Singh-Persaud is available for specialist internal medicine consultations for patients traveling to Georgetown for care.

She offers video consultations for remote second opinions and pre-visit assessments, a service that is particularly valuable for patients from Guyana's interior regions and neighboring countries. All consultations are conducted in English, and she is experienced in communicating with diverse patient populations, including the Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese communities whose healthcare needs she understands deeply.

Dr. Singh-Persaud is recognized by the Guyana Medical Council and the Caribbean College of Internal Medicine for her contributions to specialist internal medicine practice in Guyana. Her MRCP (UK) qualification distinguishes her as one of Guyana's most highly credentialed internists. She is respected by colleagues at Georgetown Public Hospital for her dedication to teaching and mentoring junior medical staff, helping to build internal medicine capacity within Guyana's healthcare workforce.