In an assessment of its achievements for 2022, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that close to $1 billion was spent by his ministry to aid in the upgrading and enhancement of the health sector. In his year-end report, the minister said all 420 health facilities which include both regional and district hospitals, health centres, and health posts, have seen some sort of upgrade for the year 2022.
“This year we spent close to one billion dollars upgrading a lot of facilities around the country, so on average every region received a hundred million dollars from the ministry to upgrade health centres within the regions.”
With the sums allocated, six of the regional hospitals received digital X-ray equipment which the ministry had managed to procure. He added that the medical theatres at the Aishalton, Moruca, and Mabaruma hospitals have all seen major improvements while the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, Leonora Cottage Hospital, and others, have also been upgraded to smart hospitals. According to Anthony, one of his ministry’s greatest achievement for last year was the refurbishing of maternal waiting homes for pregnant mothers in the hinterland areas which he said will help with the safe and easy delivery of babies.
“I think one of the programmes that have made a lot of impact is developing waiting homes… a waiting home is a building that we set up in the hospital compound so pregnant women, rather than waiting until they go into labour in their village and then try to get to the hospital, we are able to bring them out before, they stay in this facility that we have, when they go into labour we move them across, we deliver the baby… in that way we are able to prove better care for pregnant women. So we have created a network of waiting homes across the hinterland and we feel strongly that this will help with safety”, he said. The minister noted that in order to come to terms with what needed to be done, a number of assessments had to be conducted at all the health facilities in the country.
