Mabaruma Hospital upgraded to ‘smart’ facility – Health Minister

…works at Paramakatoi facility to be completed in 1 month

Works effected on the Mabaruma Hospital in Region One (Barima-Waini), to upgrade it to a SMART facility, have been completed. Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony informed on Friday that the Mabaruma Hospital is now operational, but its official commissioning is pending.
The Smart Hospital concept comes under a Gy$835 million fund provided by the former United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), and has been implemented by the Pan American Health Organization’s Department of Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief in a collaboration with the Health Ministry.
“We have completed the Smart Hospital at Mabaruma, and we have to set a date when we will officially open it. This was a project that we’ve done with funding from the UK Government and supervised by the Pan American Health Organization…,” Minister Dr Anthony explained.
“We are doing five projects; Lethem, Diamond, Leonora have all been completed. We have started working back at these facilities. At Mabaruma, they are operational again, but we have to do the official reopening,” Dr Anthony informed.
Having been subjected to works estimated to have cost approximately $16.7 million (US$800,000), the Mabaruma Hospital now features a new Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department, a renovated Recovery Room, a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a refurbished kitchen, a Sterilisation Room, and two surgical theatres.
The Guyana Defence Force is executing the contract on the Paramakatoi Hospital, the last hospital that is slated for this upgrade. Works are expected to be completed in one month’s time. Once completed, all five hospitals would have been upgraded to SMART hospitals.
“Paramakatoi was the last one. We were having difficulties to get a contractor because of the remoteness of the area and the challenges to get building materials onto the site. The GDF had agreed to do this contract, and we have contracted them to do the construction,” Dr Anthony explained.
The “smart hospital” initiative links structural and operational safety with disaster resilience, while maintaining a green status in operations.
Works at the Diamond Diagnostic facility were completed in April to the tune of US$984,439, and the hospital can now provide emergency services, obstetrics, gynaecology, surgeries, paediatrics, orthopaedics, and pharmacy and laboratory services, among other services. The building has been redesigned to use less electricity and water, and other retrofitting reduces its disaster vulnerabilities. The other hospitals will see similar upgrades.
Government plans to inject a whopping $73 billion into the healthcare sector for the year 2022. There are several larger projects on the President Dr Irfaan Ali-led Administration’s agenda that are 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).