Approximately 2,000 persons per month will benefit from the new and improved Campbellville Health Centre which is to be built.
On May 16, the Georgetown Public Hospital, which has responsibility for the health centre and others, advertised for the rental of building space for the relocation of the health centre.
The Sunday Stabroek was told that the centre will be moved to a temporary home while a new and improved building is erected at the current location.
In an interview with the Sunday Stabroek, Chief Executive Office of the Georgetown Public Health Corporation, Roubinder Rambarran stated “it was high time for us to focus on improving the accommodation and services given to the public from the Campbellville Health Centre. The building has been there for many years and even though it has undergone extensions, they cannot efficiently accommodate the expansion of services. It doesn’t currently have the layout conducive to the atmosphere patients deserve. We also have issues like flooding, leaks, so we would need to relocate temporarily until the new building is finished.”
Rambarran stated that, “due to the high level of efficiency in the day to day running of the Centre, and the fact that they are known for having the medication needed, about 2000-plus persons attend here in a month. I would go as far as to say that the Campbellville Health Centre is the best run centre in Guyana.” Many of these persons are from other catchment areas who come to utilize the services after hearing how efficiently it is run as well as because of its status as being a satellite centre for the National AIDS Programme Secretariat.
Notably, the Guyana Public Health Corporation has jurisdiction over health centres in Kitty, Festival City, Campbellville, Cummings Lodge and the Enmore Polyclinic and plans are under way for the potential joining of the Kitty and Campbellville Health Centres into one location in Campbellville.
Currently, the Kitty Health Centre is not in a position to accommodate all the necessary services due infrastructural restraints, hence, with the combination of the two centres and the re-opening of the Campbellville Health Centre, that problem will be eliminated. This plan was not considered without prior research. According to the CEO, “90% of the patients attending Kitty Health Centre, arrive there via public transportation or their personal vehicles, which would make it simple for them to go an extra five minutes to Campbellville.”
Similarly, across both health centres, the demand far exceeds the capacity they separately provide. The new new building will boast an expansion of all existing services such as dental services, a new mini lab, X-ray services, ultrasound services, expanding the current pharmacy, development of more conducive rooms for sterilization, dressing sets and many more amenities which will allow the facility to meet the needs of the community and everyone else choosing to attend that health centre.
The Centre is also used for the Family Medicine Post grad programme and with the new building, there will be an expansion and improvement on the teaching capabilities there.
Construction of the new Campbellville Health Centre set to begin late 2024.
