THE Ministry of Health has budgeted almost $500 million for equipment upgrades at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the Festival City polyclinic as part of its 2022 budget to boost the capacity of both facilities to tackle healthcare needs in central Georgetown, according to Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony.

According to the Health Minister, just under $300 million will be allocated to facilitate major equipment upgrades and replacement of outdated equipment in several departments at the GPHC, while $200 million will be allocated to the Festival City polyclinic for the procurement of several key pieces of equipment.

For the Festival City polyclinic, Minster Anthony noted that funds will go towards procuring equipment for the clinic’s own radiology department including state-of-the-art x-ray machines, a functional dental department, and a laboratory.

The Festival City polyclinic, which was once under the control of the Regional Health Services, will now be managed by the GPHC. It is expected that eight medical doctors can be accommodated on-site to provide diagnostic services to patients.

Minster Anthony noted that these equipment upgrades and procurement will allow staff of both health facilities to better cater to a wider range of medical services. He further stated that government deems it fit to retrofit both health facilities with new state-of-the-art equipment to decentralise the influx of patients at the GPHC.

“While we did a soft opening a few months ago, there’s still a lot of work to be done at Festival City. This year, we’ll be spending close to $200 million to make sure they have their own x-ray equipment, a dental section, a lab, and a whole host of other things because you have a big catchment area down there and it’s going to be easier for people to access services in that area, that is another way that we are decentralising, and reducing patient load coming to this hospital.”

The Health Minister explained that while the government has been able to employ competent doctors and other medical professionals, their expertise could only be complimented with technology to provide the best possible results for patients.

“While they have the technical expertise to do these operations, they don’t have the equipment to do the operation so we want to correct that so we’re going to be spending close to $300 million to make sure we correct that.
“It will help us to lift the quality of healthcare not just here at the GPHC but across the country,” Minister Anthony said.