Site preparation ongoing for construction of nursing school at NA

Preparatory works for the construction of a new nursing school in New Amsterdam, Region Six, has commenced. However, not much information is available on what would be a multi-million-dollar project.
The new nursing school is being constructed at the site that was occupied by the old New Amsterdam Hospital.
Earlier this year, President Dr Irfaan Ali announced that a new nursing school would be constructed in New Amsterdam. The facility will include a dormitory to allow individuals from other regions to attend the school and benefit from the training.
Back in February, the Head of State disclosed that the Government is working on securing degree accreditation from the University of the West Indies the new nursing school in Berbice.
President Ali also announced on Friday that Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony has been tasked with ironing out the arrangements for this initiative so that persons training at the facility would receive a UWI Nursing Degree.

However, while works have commenced to prepare the site for construction, details such as the cost of the project and the contractor have not been made public.
Regional Chairman David Armogan would only say that the contract was awarded to a local company and subcontracted out to another foreign company.
Nevertheless, Armogan recently visited the project site to inspect the land preparation works.
“I went there the other day and I saw a lot of Chinese working on the project. The land has been cleared and the people who were occupying the front area, we removed them. We would have to do some landfilling there. I understand that the contract was subcontracted to a Chinese company. I was there and the guys couldn’t understand what I was saying; they don’t understand any English. The project is to build a nursing school on the old hospital compound,” Armogan told reporters.
Meanwhile, this publication visited the site on Friday and the foreigners on site claimed not to be able to communicate in English and could provide no information.
In May 2012, the old New Amsterdam Nursing School was upgraded. The $49M project saw the facility for the first-time having accommodation for some student nurses.
“At this new one we want to have accommodation as well so that nurses can come from other regions, live there and study there,” the Regional Chairman pointed out. (G4)