Govt expended over $1B in primary health care for 2022 – Dr Anthony

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has expended approximately $1 billion so far in 2022 to upgrade primary health-care facilities across the country.
This was disclosed by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony in a recent article published by the Department of Public Information (DPI).
“This year the Ministry has allocated close to a billion Guyana dollars to upgrade various facilities across all the regions in Guyana. We started the process [of upgrading] last year, testing it out in Region Six and we got very good responses [ from patients], and this year we have spent almost $100 million per region improving various primary health-care facilities.”

In Region One, the Health Ministry executed work on 35 health centres and health posts, spending approximately $99.3 million.
For Region Two, 24 health centres and health posts were upgraded for $99.9 million, while Region Three saw 31 health facilities being upgraded at a cost of $99.7 million.

In Region Four, work on 30 facilities amounted to $138.9 million, while in Region Five, 14 health centres were identified for upgrades totalling $46.9 million. In Region Seven, 16 facilities, at a cost of $99.6 million, were upgraded. In Region Eight, 22 facilities saw upgrades valued at $99.5 million.
Meanwhile, in Regions Nine and 10, 53 and 17 facilities saw improvements to the value of $99.9 million and $48.4 million respectively.
“Depending on the specific needs of the health centre, we were able to get contractors to come in and fix what needed to be fixed,” the Minister told the DPI.
Since taking office on August 2, 2020, the PPP/C Government committed to its manifesto promise of prosperity for all Guyanese by expanding primary health care, upgrading health facilities across the country, including the expansion of diagnostic services such as CT scans, ultrasound, and echocardiograms, among others.