Sod turned for new US$161M state-of-the-art hospital in New Amsterdam

– to start providing world-class service to citizens in 3 years

By Andrew Carmichael

The ground has been broken for a new state-of-the-art hospital in New Amsterdam, which is expected to cost US$161 million. The new hospital is expected to be completed in three years, after which it is expected to provide world-class service to Guyanese.
The project is being funded by the European Union (EU) and will be constructed as a four-storey complex in the compound of the current National Psychiatric Hospital.
Speaking at the event on Sunday, President Dr Irfaan Ali stated that the hospital will be a level-five medical facility.
“Similarly, like a five-star hotel, a level five hospital is the premiere healthcare institution; it offers the best of the best – the highest level of service,” he explained.
The new facility, the Head of state said, will not be a stand-alone one, explaining that the new hospital is expected to be the hub of healthcare providers in Region Six, (East Berbice-Corentyne).
“In this hospital, we will have all the specialists and they will all be connected through telemedicine to every other facility in this region whether in Baracara, Black Bush Polder, or Mara. Wherever you are, those health centres and hospitals will be connected to this hospital and this hospital will be connected through the National Hospital in Georgetown through telemedicine. The National Hospital will be connected to Mount Sinai and other major hospitals around the world through telemedicine. What we want to create is something called parity of service,” President Ali explained.

He noted that with technology, all will be done, adding that patients’ records will also become digitalised.
“The more we use technology, we are removing a human bias that can kill a system. So, what we are doing is creating and establishing the framework for the system in our country to work,” he added.
However, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony pointed out the aim of establishing the facility is to ensure that Region Six has a level five hospital.
“The previous PPP/C Government would have invested in building a National Ophthalmology Hospital, and that hospital was used to serve every single citizen in this country who needed eye care. When we came back in 2020, not a single operating microscope was working and eventually that hospital was closed. We had many health facilities in this region where there were no places for people to wait and a whole host of other problems and one of the first things that we did when we came back into office was to set aside $100M and fix every single health centre in this region that needed fixing,” Minister Anthony explained.
He further stated that the National Ophthalmology Hospital is now working again. Ophthalmologists, he said, have been making trips to interior locations and shortlisting persons for cataract surgeries and then taking them to the National Ophthalmology Hospital at Port Mourant to have those surgeries done.
Meanwhile, apart from the hospital being built in New Amsterdam, Dr Anthony noted that another is currently being constructed in the Upper Corentyne area closer to Skeldon.
“The foundation is already in and by the end of this year that hospital would be functional. We are planning to have a 24-hour accident and emergency service, we want to have outpatient services, we want to make sure that we have a complete set of imaging – we want the people there if they need it to be able to have access to CT scans. in addition, it would have 75 inpatient beds with two operating theatres and one minor theatre. We will also put a surgical team there to make sure that we can do surgeries for the first time in that community.”
Dr Anthony pointed out that the infrastructure at the Port Mourant Hospital has also been improved to be able to better serve that community.
Speaking about the current state of the New Amsterdam Hospital, the Health Minister said work is in progress to improve the services being offered at that institution.
Speaking of the new hospital, Dr Anthony said it will have five operating theatres, one of which will be for cardiac surgeries.
“The equipment that we are putting in here will be world-class. We will be putting in a CT scan that will be more updated and would be one of the latest machines that is currently on the market. This hospital would be the second public facility where we will have an MRI machine – the first one being at the Maternal and Child Health Facility at Ogle.”
According to the Health Minister, the new hospital will offer an extended range of services.
“Apart from cardiac surgeries and some of the top surgeries we want to make this a centre where we will be able to do transplants,” Minister Anthony said.
Further, there will also be two other buildings in the compound of the new hospital – one designated for training.
“So, we will have a two-storey building specially dedicated for teaching on this campus and the second building we will have a modern psychiatric facility where patients who need acute care would be able to get that type of care,” the Minister pointed out.
The Austria company VAMED will construct the new facility.
Project Director Walter Puhringer pointed out that the final design is currently being worked on. This, he said will detail the functionality of the facility. According to Puhringer, the project has a three-year timeline.