The Ministry of Public Health on Friday presented 22 health facilities with licensing for the year 2019.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shamdeo Persaud explained that it was the first time the ministry had been able to present institutions with their licenses so early in the year and expressed gratitude to the administrators for complying with the requirements of the Licensing Act. “For the last two years, the compliance has been quite adequate by private facilities and most public facilities. We are working to have public facilities come up to a standard but there are some complex challenges to making sure we have the capacity to deal with major issues, such as radiotherapy,” Persaud told those gathered for the handing over on Friday.
He noted that an additional 25 institutions have been found compliant with the various requirements and will receive their licences once Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence has affixed her signature.
In total, 94 institutions have applied to be licensed to offer a variety of health services but several, including the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), have not yet been inspected. These inspections are expected to be completed by the end of March, following which the names of each licensed institution and the services they are licensed to provide will be published on the ministry’s website.
Each institution has been encouraged to display their licence in a prominent area and the public is urged to ensure that an institution is licensed to provide the service they seek.
