Work at Brickdam site only to ease congestion – PS Ally
PERMANENT Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health, Mr. Hydar Ally said, Tuesday, the current construction works ongoing in Brickdam, Georgetown, is meant to ease congestion and is not a total replacement of the old building that was destroyed by fire last year.
“We are about 60 per cent cramped and the work is being done to make accommodation for some of the departments that were lost in the blaze,” he explained.
The conflagration devastated the Ministry headquarters in July 2009 but every effort was made to ensure that the operations and delivery of services were not affected and displaced staffers were accommodated in other Health Ministry facilities.
The flames were discovered around 03:00 h on Friday, July 17, sparked by channa bombs which exploded in the top flat of the three-storey main edifice and raged for about three hours, devouring records, vehicles and several key divisions within the Ministry.
Police later removed the incendiary devices from the scene and discovered that louvre windows on another building in the compound were damaged and pieces of glass and channa were inside and outside.
Ally said the reconstruction is being done under the Ministry’s $100M Capital Works Programme and will include space for the Heath Minister.
The PS said a report in the July 2 edition of Kaieteur News, headlined ‘Over $100M expended already in quest to rehabilitate Health Ministry’, is incorrect and misleading. Ally said no such sum was spent but $100M is the amount that makes up the Ministry’s allocation for its Capital Works Programme.
He pointed out that, under that programme, substantial works are ongoing at Skeldon Hospital, costing $17M and at West Demerara Regional Hospital, the Psychiatric Hospital and the Materials Management Unit in Kingston, also in the city.
Ally said several other smaller projects are being undertaken as the Ministry advances efforts to enhance the quality of health care in Guyana.
The biggest advancement is the new wing at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), which is being erected separately from that programme at a cost of $1.2 billion, he reported.
The new in-patient facility, that was slated for completion in September, will now be completed in January 2011, according to Mr. Parmanand Samaroo, the GPH Director of Facilities Management.
He said the delay is due to some redesigning on the ground floor but the project is progressing as per schedule.
The upgrade is in keeping with a GPH master plan and the National Development Strategy (NDS), to improve the quality and efficacy of health care services and the building, when finished, is to house approximately 300 patients.