Government’s plan to establish a specialist hospital at Liliendaal, on the East Coast of Demerara, has raised questions as to why local hospitals were not seemingly considered for upgrades instead and why taxpayers’ money is being used to prepare the site.
Georgetown City Mayor Hamilton Green, in a recent letter to this newspaper, raised concerns that earlier announcements made by former President Bharrat Jagdeo seemed inconsistent from those made recently by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon on the hospital.
Luncheon had said at the last post-Cabinet news briefing that $97M had been approved for preparation of the land to meet building standards, such as preparation of the land and equipping it with necessary utility works such as water and power cables, before the actual construction work, funded through the Indian credit line, would begin.
Saying that the government was tasked with bringing the land to engineering building standards, Luncheon had stressed that preparation of the land and construction of the building were looked at separately. He said once preparation was done, the Government of India would undertake the construction and furnishing of the medical facility.
Green, in his letter, also wrote that he was disappointed that he had heard nothing on whether local hospitals were first consulted to ascertain if it would have been more feasible to upgrade them to provide similar services to those that would be offered at the specialist facility.
Among his other complaints were the fact that the hospital would be entirely staffed by Indian nationals and that there was no word on cost for services provided and whether the monies garnered by the facility will remain in Guyana or will be repatriated to India.
Stabroek News contacted the Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, who informed that while he would be more than willing to agree to an interview to explain the plan and processes of the hospital he was at a Cabinet meeting that would last the entire day. He subsequently undertook to address questions today, in order to give clarity to the people on the hospital.
