Construction of referral hospital for children, high-risk mothers to start soon – Health Minister

Construction of a referral hospital for children and high-risk mothers will begin shortly, according to Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony.

This hospital, the Minster stated, will have 256 beds. “We will start the construction of several new hospitals, including a referral hospital for children and high-risk mothers, that’s a 256-bed hospital that will be started shortly.”
The Health Minister stated that once the hospital becomes operational, it will be equipped to facilitate paediatric cardiac surgery.
“In that hospital, we’ll have capabilities of doing paediatric cardiac surgery, oncology, and some of these other specialty care that we believe our population would need,” he said. In addition, once the hospital comes on stream, Guyana will be open to accepting patients from other countries.
“We are open to helping other countries, so if they have patients and they want to send to us, once these facilities become operational, we’ll certainly look at those complicated patients.” Moreover, the Minister stated that the construction of the six new regional hospitals the Government has announced will start this year.
“We’re also adding six new regional hospitals and that too, we’ll start this year, to build these hospitals,” he said. President Dr Irfaan Ali had announced, during his Independence Day address to Guyana, that six modernised regional health facilities are expected to be erected at the cost of US$180 million.
Works will be done on four major diagnostic centres in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), upgrading them to regional hospitals.
For the year 2022, the Government plans on injecting a whopping $73 billion into the healthcare sector. This was an enormous increase from the $53.5 billion in 2021. From this figure, $1 billion was set aside for upgrades to health centres and an additional $2 billion for medical and non-medical equipment.
There are several larger projects on the Ali-led Administration’s agenda, geared at decentralising healthcare and enabling easier access for Guyanese. A major initiative is the construction of a new $2 billion multi-specialty hospital at Suddie, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).