Work on new Skeldon hospital on track for completion this year – Health Minister

Construction work by the Sinapharm and CAMCE on the new Skeldon Hospital is on scheduled for the new facility to be opened this year.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony inspected works on Saturday.
Last year President Dr Irfaan Ali announced that the new hospital at Number 75 Village Corentyne, Region Six would be constructed and will replace the current Skeldon Hospital.
The Head of State also said that the new facility would provide a wider range of services.
Dr Anthony during the visit said that the new 75-bed hospital would offer a 24-hour Accident and Emergency services, a wide range of imaging including CT scans and digital X-rays.
Additionally, the hospital will have a delivery ward, two operating theaters and one minor theater and will offer 24-hours laboratory services.
“Our target date is by the end of the year to be substantially completed to have this operational early next year,” the minister told reporters.
He noted that the Health Ministry had been monitoring the progress on a monthly basis and he is pleased with the progress made to date.
“We have meetings almost every month to look at progress. If we think that they can do a little bit more, we point out areas where they can speed up,” he added.
Dr Anthony said the overall objective in constructing a new hospital is to replace the current one at Skeldon, because the government took a decision to have some of the old infrastructure in the country replaced.
As it relates to the Skeldon Hospital he explained that it doesn’t have theater capacity among other things.
“So, to repair that, which we have been doing over the years it would be much more costly and given the development that is going to be happening in this part of Region Six and the anticipation of a new bridge connecting Suriname, this is an area where a lot of growth will happen and we anticipate that there will also be an increase for health care needs. Hence, some of the things that we are putting in here is a big upgrade from what we have at the current Skeldon Hospital, but we are also anticipating future growth.”
In addition to the Skeldon Hospital, a new New Amsterdam Hospital is also being constricted in Region Six. In Region Five a new hospital is being constructed at Bath Settlement, while in Region Four there are two new hospitals being constructed; one on the East Coast and the other on the East bank. The health minister said they want to decant the services from the Georgetown Hospital and have two regional hospitals in that region.
“So that people living in those areas don’t have to go to Georgetown, they can go to these hospitals. So the load at Georgetown Hospital will be less and we want Georgetown Hospital to be a referral hospital so that it can function in that referral capacity,” the health minister explained.
Meanwhile, in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), a new hospital is being constructed at De Kinderen Village.
In Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) a new hospital is being built at Anna Regina.
At Ogle, East Coast Demerara, a maternal and pediatric hospital is also being built which will have 265 beds.
Apart from those, the government is currently seeking bids for the construction of hospitals at Kato, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo); Kamarang, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Moruca, Region One (Barima-Waini) all being hinterland locations. Government is also working on a design for a new hospital at Bartica. (G4)