Superstructure for $31.9B paediatric, maternal hospital completed – Dr Anthony

The structure for the $31.9 billion state-of-the-art Paediatric and Maternal Hospital in Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD), which will revolutionise healthcare in Guyana has been completed.
The hospital is being built by VAMED Engineering, which has implemented more than 1,000 projects across the globe, and provided high-end services for more than 820 health facilities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
During a telephone interview with this publication on Tuesday, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony explained that with the structure in place, the contractor will soon commence works to enclose the building.
This phase, he said, will include the layering of walls that extend from the foundation to the roof, installation of doors, windows and drainage systems, among others.
“While we would be finishing off the cladding on the outer layer, they would start working inside. So, I think we’ll start seeing the building moving very quickly. So, by next year we should be in a position to open the hospital,” Dr. Anthony said.
The Paediatric and Maternal Hospital will be a referral centre for women and children. It will specialise in maternal, neonatal, and paediatric care with a huge imaging suite for services such as CT scans, X-rays, MRI’s scanning equipment, a modern laboratory, and surgical suites.
The facility will also have 256 beds and high-quality equipment sourced from the United Kingdom.
According to Dr. Anthony, the hospital supports systems being put in place by government to reduce Guyana’s morbidity rate, have less diseases and be able to treat diseases properly.
“Well, the hospital would focus on two main things, high-risk mothers, so we’d be able to provide all the services for those high-risk mothers and manage them in a better environment. And also, for gynecological patients that would need certain amount of care, we’d be able to provide that care at that hospital. In addition to the paediatric components of the hospital, we’ll be able to do a lot of specialised paediatric services so things that are not possible right now,” he added.
The Paediatric and Maternal Hospital was birthed from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Guyana and Austria. While the agreement had catered for another set of works, the PPP/C Government had amendments for the construction of this facility after entering office.
The EUR$149 million (Guy$31.9 billion) contract for the hospital was signed on June 8, 2022.
The project also marks Guyana’s first UK Export Credit Agency financing and is being done in accordance with the FIDIC yellow book standards, a standard contract where the design is carried out by the contractor.
Further, the sum of $129.2 billion was set aside in the 2024 Budget to advance the healthcare sector and a large chunk was assigned to the Paediatric and Maternal Hospital in Plantation Goedverwagting.
To be exact, $10.3 billion of the allotted sum was provided for the construction of the facility. At the time, government had highlighted that the provision will cater for the advancement of works on the site, especially in crucial areas that will help the administration to achieve world-class healthcare delivery. (G1)