2 Berbice health centres sit as white elephants

3 years after being built

…contractors paid in full, remedial works incomplete

Two health centres in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) – located respectively at Number 76 Village, Corentyne and at Plegtanker, East Bank Berbice — have not been opened three years after they were constructed.

Director of Regional Health Services, Jevaughn Stephens, has said the facilities have not yet been handed over to the Region Health Department, since the contractors responsible for their erection still have remedial works to carry out on the structures.
However, those contractors have been paid in full, although the facilities are not functional.
The issue was raised last week when the Region Six Regional Democratic Council (RDC) met for its statutory meeting.
Vice Chairman Dennis DeRoop bemoaned that after the RDC had budgeted for the facilities, and after their construction had been approved, persons cannot benefit from their existence, even though they were built.
He noted that while the building sits at Plegtanker, there is no medical facility for the people on the East Bank of Berbice. The Plegtanker Health Centre was built from allocations in the 2015 budget, and the Number 76 Health Centre was built from allocations in the 2016 budget. In excess of $13 million was spent on the two health centres.
“Why are we spending this money and we are not delivering services?” DeRoop asked. “We are not utilising these places,” he lamented.

Regional Chairman David Armogan disclosed that he had recently visited both facilities. “Bush is taking over the buildings,” he asserted. “Even the compound is not being cleaned. It looks like a building that is just left to go (into decay). It doesn’t look like a health centre, and something that we are serious about,” Armogan noted.
Director of Regional Health Services, Jevaughn Stephens, explained that after both facilities had been completed, the projects were referred to the Public Works Department for remedial work. Plumbing and electrical works have also not yet been completed, Stephens added.
“Government had passed out upgraded ‘minimum standards for health centres’, and we shared that with the engineers. It has to do with the type of seats and all that is required; and we have already procured furnishing for both facilities, and our staff is trained and ready to take over those facilities,” Stephens said.
Stephens has said that as soon as the Regional Engineering Department hands over the buildings to the Health Department, the Health Department would be able to put both health centres into use.
Calling this response “ridiculous”, Armogan questioned when the contractors were asked to carry out remedial works. “This is totally unacceptable!” he said. “We can’t come three years after and say the reason why it was not opened as yet is because there were structural deficiencies. That should have been identified weeks after the building was completed,” Armogan declared.
Plegtanker residents, meanwhile, have explained that it costs them up to $10,000 to get to the New Amsterdam Hospital, while the facility has been a white elephant for years.
Haridai Tambron, a resident of Plegtanker for 41 years, said construction of the health centre commenced in 2015. According to Tambron, residents in the community have to travel to either the New Amsterdam Hospital, some 20 miles away, or the Sisters Health Centre, situated thirteen miles away.
Plegtanker resident Nandika Tomby explained that it is very expensive to take sick persons to the New Amsterdam Hospital. “We does have to hire a car to reach out…it does take like three hours to reach out. Sometimes we got to pay $10,000 or $12,000 to hire a car to go to the hospital in New Amsterdam.”
Several Plegtanker residents have said they eagerly await the day when the facility would be opened.