$31.9B paediatric, maternal hospital: President Ali expresses dissatisfaction at pace of work
…electrical, plumbing, gas line not commenced despite looming deadline
Contractors, VAMED Engineering that’s working on the $31.9 billion state-of-the-art Paediatric and Maternal Hospital in Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD), is expected to pay liquidated damages over the delayed completion of the facility.
This is according to President Dr Irfaan Ali, who on Monday during an inspection of the ongoing works expressed his dissatisfaction with the pace of construction.
Apart from the superstructure which is complete, internal works such as plumbing, the installation of gas and electrical lines has not commenced.
In addition, the contractor is still procuring crucial pieces of equipment and a sub-contractors hired to execute certain aspects of the project is still mobilizing, among other deficiencies.
The Paediatric and Maternal Hospital will be a referral centre for women and children. It will specialise in maternal, neonatal, and paediatric care with a huge imaging suite for services such as CT scans, X-rays, MRI’s scanning equipment, a modern laboratory, and surgical suites.
The facility will also have 256 beds and high-quality equipment sourced from the United Kingdom.
Highlighting the importance of the state-of-art-facility, President Ali instructed the VAMED Engineering to hire more sub-contractors, work on various aspects of the project simultaneously and implement a shift system to fast-track works throughput November and December.
“This is a level 5 facility. This is the highest standard that you will get for pediatric care. So, the construction and the design take into consideration the most modern equipment to match what the hospital is expected to deliver. We will definitely have to import some specialized skills in the first phase of management of the hospital. We have already started looking at areas that we will need specialists to come into so that we can train our locals. Of course, this hospital and the other regional hospitals, there is a story as to how rapidly we have to train our nurses and medical technicians and so on. But we are hoping that the contractor here will also pick up some pace. We are not satisfied with the pace at the moment. And we will not ship our deadline on the completion of this hospital,” President Ali said.
Further, during Monday’s inspection a representative of VAMED Engineering indicated that the final testing for the building will be completed by October 2025, however, President Ali indicated that the project will be inspected in January 2025, given that the hospital was slated to be completed late 2024.
“October next year? To just test the internals? That’s not going to play with us. I’m telling you, that is far beyond the project time. And I hope the consultant is making notes because we’re going to be charging liquidated damages. Of course, we discuss with the contractor every day. We’re not going to accept that. We can’t accept this going to October”.
“You have to work through December and January. So I’ll visit back at the end of January to see where you are but that is the only way. You have to work out with them a shift system to get it done by the end of January. Otherwise, it’s going to completely disrupt the particular path. That is the most important thing now. Because if that is not done, then nothing else can be done. If the testing is not done, you can’t do anything,” the Guyanese Leader added.
The Paediatric and Maternal Hospital was birthed from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Guyana and Austria. While the agreement had catered for another set of works, the PPP/C Government had amendments for the construction of this facility after entering office.
The EUR$149 million (Guy$31.9 billion) contract for the hospital was signed on June 8, 2022.
The project also marks Guyana’s first UK Export Credit Agency financing and is being done in accordance with the FIDIC yellow book standards, a standard contract where the design is carried out by the contractor.
Further, the sum of $129.2 billion was set aside in the 2024 Budget to advance the healthcare sector and a large chunk was assigned to the Paediatric and Maternal Hospital in Plantation Goedverwagting.
To be exact, $10.3 billion of the allotted sum was provided for the construction of the facility. At the time, government had highlighted that the provision will cater for the advancement of works on the site, especially in crucial areas that will help the administration to achieve world-class healthcare delivery. (G1)