RESIDENTS of the South Rupununi, Region Nine, will now benefit from improved emergency health services, as a $15M fully equipped ambulance was presented to the Aishalton District Hospital on April 14.
The ambulance will provide services to Aishalton and surrounding areas, including
Awarewaunau, Mururanau, Shea, Kraudanarau, Achiwib, Rupunau, Sand Creek and Shulinab. Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, who officially handed over the vehicle to the District Hospital, reiterated the government’s commitment to providing quality health services to the Guyanese people.
“We have a mission, and that is having a good life for everyone, and health comes first… This is the beginning of many more things to come.” Regional Executive Officer, Carl Parker said that the initiative is part of the regional administration’s effort to improve the medical facility, by enabling it to do surgery and dentistry among other services.
He said that the region is also working on upgrading the Annai, Karasabai and Sand Creek health centres so as they can become cottage hospitals, and that because of the growing population of the villages, more Community Health Workers (CHWs) will be assigned to all the health centres in the region. Plans are also on stream, Parker said, to have the Lethem Hospital operate on a 24-hour basis. To facilitate this development, he is calling on young people in the region to apply for training in the medical field, since there will be a need for more doctors, nurses, medexes (Medical Extension Officers) and technicians.
Regional Health Officer (RHO), Region 9, Dr. Naail Uthman, has said that the ambulance would be used primarily by the maternal unit to reduce maternal deaths in the region, and that the hospital can now transfer its patients to the main referral hospital in Lethem. The ambulance will add to the one already in Annai and in Lethem to provide services to the residents in those areas. Among other services soon to be added to the Aishalton District Hospital are x-rays and surgeries. An X-ray and anaesthetic machine will be procured soon. Between 2015 and 2018, the Coalition Government invested over $950M in health services in Region 9, of which the sum of $120M was spent in Aishalton alone. (DPI)