Works on the six new promised hospitals across the country are forging ahead with preparations at the proposed Enmore location soon to be completed.
After construction, the nearby polyclinic will be closed and all treatment moved to the new facility, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony said.
“We promised six new hospitals and what you see at Enmore are preparatory works being completed for that one. The Enmore hospital is one of the hospitals earmarked for Region Four and the polyclinic that is opposite will be closed when that one is completed and opened,” Anthony told Stabroek News yesterday as he gave an update on the project.
The minister said that it was imperative that plans be executed to bring quality healthcare to all citizens of this country, as he pointed to monies allocated for the sector both last year and this year.
During the 2022 Budget Estimates, Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh had announced the construction of six modern regional hospitals which fell under the $73.2 billion budget allocated to the sector last year.
The areas and regions identified for the new hospitals are: Anna Regina, Region Two; De Kinderen, Region Three; Diamond, Region Four; Enmore, Region Five; Bath, Region Six; and Number 75 Village, Corentyne, Region Six.
Each hospital will be 65,000 square feet and equipped with at least 75 hospital beds.
“These regional hospitals are expected to catapult healthcare delivery beyond current levels provided by existing regional facilities as well as reduce the undue cost and burden of referrals to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH),” Singh had said.
Then in May of last year, President Irfaan Ali announced that the contract, which is part of a larger US$180 million initiative that will modernise six regional facilities, would be inked soon.
In July, the Finance Minister tabled two agreements in the National Assembly to cater for the construction.
The first, the Export Finance Agreement (No. CIE/BC-DL/Guyana/0020014380) dated June 14, 2022 between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the United Kingdom Export Finance totalling €161,016,949 allows for the financing, design, and construction of a state-of-the-art paediatric and maternal hospital at Ogle, as well as the delivery of medical equipment to the institution.
That hospital will be constructed by VAMED, an Austria-based company which is a global provider for hospitals and other facilities in the healthcare sector. The facility will cost €149 million and will be constructed at plots 7 and 8, Plantation Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara.
The low-rise facility will have 256 beds.
The other, the Deferred Payment Agreement, Lot One (1) to Lot Six (6) dated July 12, 2022 between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the China CAMC Engineering Company Limited for a total amount of € 136,132,800 is for the financing of Government’s Regional Hospitals Project. Under the Regional Hospitals Project, six hospitals will be constructed in five regions: one in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam); one at De Kinderen, Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara); one at Diamond and another at Enmore, in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica); one in Bath, Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) and one in Number 75 Village, Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne). Each modern hospital is slated to be equipped with 75 beds.
That signing took place in August 2022 with China’s Sinopharm International.
Sinopharm had donated a large quantity of COVID-19 vaccines to Guyana during the pandemic.
When Stabroek News visited the Enmore facility last week, preparatory works were being undertaken but the workmen on the site, who included Chinese nationals, said that they did not know what the site was being prepared for.
Anthony later informed that it was for the Enmore Hospital and that Sinopharm was the contractor.
President Ali has said that he wanted a revamping of the healthcare sector so that it is one that provides world class health facilities with the highest standards.
Government has placed special emphasis on the health sector in 2023, allocating some $84 billion, in comparison to the 2022 figure of $74 billion, saying that it was part of the plan to ensure there is rapid infrastructural development, as well as better access to primary healthcare here.