– Cardiology Services Inc on course to establish advanced medical care centre

By Navendra Seoraj
ADVANCED medical health care has been absent from the local economy, but investors are actively seeking financing in order to establish facilities here and provide specialised care to locals and even foreigners.
As the saying goes, “without health there is no happiness,” and with Guyanese anticipating happiness in other forms because of the country’s new-found oil wealth, the availability of specialised medical care will be critical as Guyana moves forward.
Some investors are already looking to satisfy the potential and existing demand for specialised health services. In some cases, investors have even gone past the stage of conceptualisation and are examining options for financing.

“Some (investors) moved through advanced stages… they are looking at plans for financing these ventures… they have gone past the conceptualisation stage and are now looking for financing and placing,” said Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Nicholas Boyer, in an exclusive interview with Guyana Chronicle.
Facilities which offer specialised medical care are called specialty hospitals, and while the idea of constructing such a facility here is not new, Boyer said it could be costly.
A specialty hospital is defined as a facility that is primarily or exclusively engaged in the care and treatment of patients with a cardiac condition, orthopedic condition, a condition requiring a surgical procedure and any other specialised category of services.
“Building these hospitals are not cheap… from what I know, there could be at least three hospitals and each hospital would have to be within the range of US$8 million to US$20 million, based on the size and the disciplines,” said the PSC chairman.
The necessity is, however, greater than the cost in this case because health care here is ‘underserved’, especially in terms of specialised treatment, said Boyer, adding: “most advanced treatments have to be done outside of the country”.

As mentioned, the private sector is ready to fill this gap, but he said government has to regulate those services and ensure there is quality and affordability.
Already, the new People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has announced the removal of corporate tax on private health care services and the removal of Value-Added Tax (VAT) on medical supplies.

“Government must now allow the private sector to invest… they have to create regulations to allow the private sector to bring in funds back and work on some of the existing problems, like access to health care and specialised services,” said Boyer.
Existing evidence shows that private health care increases economic activity, create jobs, increases the wellness of the population and reduces mortality rates.

SIGNIFICANT INTEREST
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony had told sections of the media that there is ‘significant’ local and foreign interest from the private sector, in the area of specialised medical care.
The minister was reported as saying: “In terms of specialty hospital, apart from maybe Government investing, there has also been a lot of interest from the private sector, locally and foreign, to invest in developing specialised services. So, we are very favourable to such investments.
“And we’re hoping that we can start working with those private sector companies to start realising them. And if there are others who want to come in, we’ll be happy to review and offer advice and see how we can enable them to invest.”
Cardiology Service Inc, headed by renowned local Cardiologist, Dr. Mahendra Carpen, was one of the companies to publicly announce its intention to construct a specialty hospital in Guyana.

It was reported that in 2017, Cardiology Services Inc reached out to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) by way of an Expression of Interest to purchase various lands in Ogle for the purpose of building a hospital.
But, according to a press statement issued by NICIL, in February 2020, an Agreement of Sale was signed, and, in June 2020, “without the knowledge or participation of Cardiology Services Inc”, the property was vested in Cardiology Services Inc though the financial terms of the transaction had not been completed.
“Given the circumstances surrounding the vesting of the lands, Cardiology Services Inc announces that it has agreed to rescind the Vesting Order without prejudice and revert title of the lands to NICIL so as to enable the Government of Guyana to fulfil its mandate to ensure all lands are reclaimed unimpeded,” the release stated.

CONFIDENT
Despite the ‘setback’, Dr. Carpen told the Guyana Chronicle that he is confident that his company would gain approval for plans to establish a private, advanced medical care centre in Guyana.
“Regarding the issue surrounding the land, we will continue pressing the case and making representation to have this hospital be developed as soon as possible for the benefit of the Guyanese people,” said the cardiologist who could not say more because of existing confidentiality agreements.
Cardiology Services Inc had said it looks forward to working with NICIL and the Government of Guyana to achieve their mutual goals of building a state-of-the-art private hospital at the appropriate time.

Guyana, under the President Bharrat Jagdeo-led administration, had secured a US$18 million Line of Credit (LOC) from the Indian Export-Import (EXIM) bank for the construction of a specialty hospital at Liliendaal.

The hospital was expected to promote medical tourism and focus on providing specialised services to locals.
The project was described as the largest ever single health care project to be undertaken in the health sector. Young professionals were expected to be trained to reach the required standards, and then be provided with full-time jobs in the new hospital.
Unlike foreign specialist hospitals, the then Government of Guyana was working towards providing those services at reduced costs.
Back in 2012, the contract to construct the hospital was awarded to an India-based company, Surendra Engineering Corporation Limited. But, a competing Indian company named Fedders Lloyd Corporation had opposed the bid.
After the APNU+AFC Government entered office in 2015, it proceeded to hand the contract to Fedders Lloyd, which was subsequently blacklisted by the World Bank for unrelated procurement breaches.

The APNU+AFC Government had cancelled the project and proposed to channel funds towards the upgrading of regional hospitals.
The Government of India in response to this decision had suggested that Government should consider salvaging the specialty hospital because it will complement primary health-care facilities in Guyana. But that was never done.