APNU/AFC now promises specialty hospitals in manifesto

After sabotaging specialty hospital project

In only one sentence— so small it is easy to miss— in the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) manifesto, the coalition party promises to construct a specialty hospital, despite sabotaging previous efforts to build one in Guyana.

While the Opposition – People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) – has already announced that once it retakes the reign of Government, it will revive the project, the APNU/AFC, in its 32-page manifesto which was released on Friday, now promises it will construct and operationalise specialty hospitals.
Another health-related promise is the establishment of “smart hospitals and healthcare”, which the coalition party noted would increase and improve access to healthcare, particularly for people in remote areas.
It also pledged to provide modern equipment and technology and employ skilled personnel to attend to patients in hospitals countrywide.
However, the former PPP/C had started a US$18 million Specialty Hospital Project that would have provided advanced medical treatment for Guyanese, eliminating the need to travel overseas for expensive, life-saving treatments.
It was being funded by the India Export-Import (EXIM) Bank via a US$18 million line of credit (LoC). Back in 2012, the contract to construct the hospital was awarded to an India-based company, Surendra Engineering Corporation Limited. At the time, a competing Indian company, Fedders Lloyd Corporation, represented by then AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan – now the prime ministerial candidate for APNU/AFC – opposed the bid.
While in Opposition, both the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), before they coalesced, had opposed the US$18 million project.

Disappointment
Former Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam had expressed disappointment in the scrapping of the project.
In an interview with Guyana Times, the Indian High Commissioner, who had recently ended his five-year tour in Guyana, expressed his disappointment that the project never took off. However, he noted that such a facility is much needed in Guyana, especially with the upcoming economic development the country is about to experience as a result of the oil boom when production commences early next year.
“With the oil coming in and with Guyana’s economy going to develop far better than anyone can imagine, a specialty hospital is required… There will be good demand for such services, and not just for Guyanese,” Mahalingam posited prophetically.
The PPP itself has long said that should they be elected; they will establish the specialty hospital and it is clear the APNU/AFC is somersaulting on another PPP project it had rejected.