On Sunday, after hinting recently that such a project was in the pipeline, President Irfaan Ali turned the sod for the construction of the latest New Amsterdam General Hospital. During the ceremony, the public was informed that the hospital, which is being built at Fort Canje, Berbice by VAMED Engineering will cost US$161 million. The main four-storey structure, it was reported, will have at least five operating theatres, as well as capacity for digital x-rays, CT scans, MRI and transplants. Two annexes will cater for a teaching facility and a modern psychiatric facility.
Taken at face value, this is all good news or it should be. For one thing, VAMED Engineering, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, bills itself as a reputable international healthcare provider, which has constructed hospitals all around the world, with some 1,000 projects implemented in 95 countries as of 2020. For another, the current Fort Canje Psychiatric Hospital is serving neither its patients nor the community in its present state.
That being said, the third is a sticking point. While it is true that there is dire need for modern, affordable, and satisfactory healthcare in Guyana, which includes buildings with the necessary facilities, the truth is that there is already a New Amsterdam Hospital which was opened as a brand new institution in February 2005. It should be noted here that universally, hospitals are built to last at least 30 years before requiring renovations.
When the present New Amsterdam Hospital was built, the edifice it replaced had long been ignored and had reached the stage where it had been condemned as unsafe. Nevertheless, that structure had heritage value, as the original building had been designed by the world-renowned architect Cesar Castellani in 1881. Numerous pleas to the then Bharrat Jagdeo administration to preserve the building were to no avail. In fact, though the government had posited over the years that it might have been used for various purposes – including as a medical training centre and nurses’ hostel – the building and its extensions were horribly vandalised with a lot of valuable, salvageable materials disappearing to the extent that a section collapsed. Finally, in 2010, it was ordered demolished.
Apropos the current New Amsterdam Hospital, in 2008, an Intensive Care Unit was established by way of a joint project undertaken by the Rotary Clubs of New Amsterdam and Eau Gallie, Florida in collaboration with the Berbice Regional Health Authority. This followed the installation of a waiting area in 2007 with assistance from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company. As recently as 2022, the Ali administration added a 15-bed Infectious Disease Unit, which cost $41 million. It was cited then as necessary and a response to the inadequacy observed in Region Six at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Later that same year, the government poured more money into the hospital to complete the Maternity Unit which had begun under the David Granger administration. Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony had told the media in May 2022 that “many modifications” had to be done, as the unit had been poorly designed with pillars placed in “the middle of the operating space” among other things. He did not divulge exactly how much was spent, but it was more than likely in the millions.
Given all the above, why a brand new New Amsterdam Hospital is being built is a fair question. Moreso since, in November 2022 when the announcement was made about new hospitals to be built around the country, New Amsterdam was not one of the areas specifically mentioned. In a press release issued by the Department of Public Information at the time, Dr Anthony had listed De Kinderen in Region Three; Ogle, Little Diamond, and Enmore in Region Four; Bath Settlement in Region Five and Number 75 Village in Region Six. Moreover, the release had quoted him as saying, “We have already handed over the site [for the 256-bed Paediatric and Maternal and Hospital in Ogle] … to… VAMED and very soon you will begin to see site preparation occurring… they have engaged the Ministry of Health and its technical team to finalise the design of the hospital… and very soon laying of the foundation will commence.”
Furthermore, in September 2021, President Ali had turned the sod for the construction of a $2 billion, multi-speciality, 250-bed hospital at Suddie, in Region Two, which was said to be slated for completion last year. This was despite the fact that in 2018, the Granger administration had spent $40.9 million building a new operation theatre at the existing Suddie Public Hospital.
When one does the maths, a ton of money is being spent on hospital buildings and really, questions need to be asked and answered, because something just doesn’t add up. When one talks to the people or just looks at what is provided, there does not appear to be any concomitant improvement in healthcare. Of course, one reason is that insufficient attention is being paid to the needs and working conditions of medical workers, specifically nurses, but also attendants, cleaners and others on the lower rungs of the ladder whose services are essential to keeping hospital doors open. If things don’t change in this area, everything being touted above apart from squandering money is purely an exercise in futility.