Cuba builds eye surgery clinic in Guyana.

A new Cuban-built ophthalmology center in Guyana will provide free surgery for people from across the Caribbean.

"We will be offering services to the Guyanese diaspora and to foreign citizens also, free of cost, as long as you come through the Ministry of Health," said Dr. Bheri Ramsarran, Guyana's junior health minister, in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE.

He said the $700,000 ophthalmology center could perform 10,000 surgeries annually, meaning the institution will have surplus capacity to treat patients from outside Guyana.

The official noted that the Cuban-Venezuelan Mission Miracle eye-care program has helped Guyana "mop up the backlog" of 40,000 pending procedures for cataracts, pteridium and night blindness.

Another 8,000 Guyanese have been already screened for possible treatment at the new center, which is staffed by surgeons and other health-care workers from Cuba, which will also supply a range of medical supplies free of cost for the next two years.

The ophthalmology center is one of several projects under a Guyanese-Cuban health collaboration program that also includes the construction of four diagnostic and treatment centers in the South American country.