New state-of-the-art hospital to replace West Demerara Regional Hospital – Pres Ali

…says “West Dem Hospital has now outgrown its time”

In the coming days, a tender would be issued for the design and construction of a new modern state-of-the-art facility to replace the current West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) as the Guyana Government continues to transform healthcare services and delivery for citizens across the country.
This was revealed by President Dr. Irfaan Ali during the commissioning of a new primary school at Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), on Friday.
According to the Head of State, Region Three is rapidly growing economically, financially and in the housing sector as well as its population as enormous amounts of investments are being made there.
However, he stated that with this exponential growth, existing services and facilities such as the WDRH has outgrown its purpose.

“The West Dem Hospital has now outgrown its time. It has outgrown what it was built for. It does not meet the modern efficient reliable needs of the citizens of region three. That is why, next week we will be launching a new tender for a new state-of-the-art hospital at West Demerara,” President Ali disclosed on Friday.
This new West Dem hospital, the Guyana Leader noted, coupled with existing projects, such as another regional hospital at Zeelugt that is slated to be completed by March 2025, will bolster the region’s healthcare services. Additionally, works are ongoing on another regional hospital at De Kinderen, West Coast Demerara (WCD), and are expected to be completed in the first half of next year.
In the 2024 Mid-Year report, the Finance Ministry said the designs for the new West Demerara Hospital are expected to be completed in the latter half of this year. Meanwhile, the 2024 Budget had earmarked some $10 billion for upgrade works to be carried out at the WDRH along with two other regional hospitals this year.
During his address to Region Three residents on Friday, President Ali acknowledged the issues that are plaguing the WDRH. In the same breath, however, he pointed out that there have been tremendous investments made to improve healthcare services across the region and especially at the WDRH.
As a result of these interventions, the Head of State noted that the regional hospital has churred out high performances in a number of service areas over the past four years. In fact, during the first four months of 2024, the WDRH conducted a whopping 585 surgeries compared to just 16 surgeries done in the first four months of 2021.
Similarly, referrals to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) in the first four of this year plummeted compared to 2020 when it was 208.
“The referrals to Georgetown in the first four months of 2024 is 106 – almost 100 per cent decrease in referrals. That tells you of the qualitative care, the difference in the qualitive care… Let us look at clinic attendance. In 2020, in the first four months of that year, the clinic attendance was 1899. You know what was the clinic attendance in the first four months of 2024, 20,794 …compare that,” President Ali posited.
The Guyanese Leader added that with more people taking greater interests in their health and with the Region Three population growth, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is working hard to meet, even anticipate, their needs – work, which he says, are not often recognised.
“Every day, we wake up with a new mission and new drive to make your lives better and dedicating a bit more energy in getting the work done… [But] this is the story that is not being told. It is easy to post one bad story or two bad stories… but what about these [positive works being done],” the president stated, adding that his administration will continue to block out the noise and focus on building the nation and improving the lives of its people.
Only back in July, General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, had stated that they are on track to delivering their 2020 manifesto promise of six new hospitals by 2025. He had noted that three Regional Hospitals will be completed this year and the remaining three will be completed within the first quarter of 2025.
In addition to completing these hospitals, Jagdeo said the next step for the government is to address the challenge of having adequate human resources to effectively manage the new facilities, citing the possibility of employing medical professionals from other countries. This, he reminded, is aside from the Government’s intention to train as many Guyanese in the medical field.
“We are already looking into how we staff these hospitals because we can’t just complete the hospitals. We have to now get people to run these hospitals. And therefore, that’s a big challenge now. And we may have to recruit people from abroad, apart from training our own people. And that’s why we keep seeing as many people who want to go into training in the medical field. We will pay for them to be trained too, like nurses, nursing aides, and stuff like that,” the PPP General Secretary had explained.
Regional Hospitals at Diamond and Enmore in Region Four, as well as Bath on the West Coast of Berbice in Region Five are poised for completion by year-end.
Progress is also underway for hospitals at Lima in Region Two, De Kinderen in Region Three and No. 75 Village in Region Six which are all scheduled for completion within the first quarter of next year.