RESIDENTS of Essequibo, Region Two, will soon be able to access enhanced health services, with plans in place to construct a modern hospital at Anna Regina.

The modern hospital is one of many facilities to be constructed by the government this year in areas such as Tuschen, Diamond, Enmore, Bath and No. 75 Village, Corentyne, among others.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who inspected the site for the construction of the facility, said the hospital will provide inpatient and outpatient services to boost healthcare in the Pomeroon-Supenaam region.

“The new hospital will have about 75 inpatient beds. It will have a modern accident and emergency, it will have modern laboratories, it will also have an imaging suite and that will include not just digital x-rays, but CT scans. It will have two modern operating theatres and a small minor theatre,” Dr. Anthony said.

He said the site was chosen based on the ‘population centre,’ as citizens in the area will have easy access to the facility.

Dr. Anthony said: “In the next couple of months, hopefully, we’ll be able to start work here and I think it will be a good development for the coast.”

He added that health facilities across the country will be retrofitted to provide better accommodation for patients.

The government will also be working to ensure adequate medical equipment are available and a new electronic medical record system is in place to provide better service to citizens.

Meanwhile, speaking at the opening ceremony of the new Infectious Diseases Chest Clinic at the Suddie Public Hospital, the Health Minister said construction will begin this year for the new state-of-the-art paediatric and maternal hospital in the region.

Dr. Anthony said: “We are also going to be building a modern paediatric, a women and children hospital, and again this is going to be a sub-specialty hospital where if you have children with oncological issues, they would be able to go there and get care.”

This hospital will provide a number of services such as paediatric cardiac surgery. (DPI)