— work on US$30M state-of-the-art hospital at Bath Settlement expected to commence soon

WORK on a modern US$30M hospital at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice will commence this year and the government has announced that it is willing to fully fund scholarships for 5,000 Region Five residents to pursue tertiary or technical education as it ramps up attention on education and healthcare.

Speaking to residents at separate community meetings in Novar and at the Bath Primary School, Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo said the government, since assuming power some 18 months ago, has crafted a master plan to transform the health sector.

He told the residents that the quality of healthcare and services offered by the State will improve significantly in the near future with the construction of six modern hospitals along the coast, which together will cost over US$180M.

Among the six is the one at Bath Settlement. Preparatory work there is slated to commence soon and the hospital is expected to be ready for opening before 2025.

Dr Jagdeo told the residents that the Bath Settlement Hospital, when completed, will be equipped with three operating threatres of international standards and a CT scanner among other vital equipment that will enable the provision of services that they usually travel to Georgetown or have to pay private medical service providers to obtain.

The other state-of-the-art hospitals will be built at Skeldon, Region Six; Enmore, East Coast Demerara, Region Four; Diamond, East Bank Demerara, Region Four; Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, Region Three and Anna Regina, Region Two.

The hospitals in New Amsterdam, Georgetown, Linden and the hinterland regions will also be upgraded and four modern diagnostic facilities will be built in the hinterland regions with conferencing capability to enable telemedicine services, said the Vice-President.

In addition, a state-of-art children and maternal hospital will be built and work is expected to commence on this facility before year-end.

The Vice-President also pointed out that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in its 2020 election manifesto promised to offer 20,000 online scholarships to Guyanese and has begun this process.
Last year, he said the government awarded some 6,000 scholarships and this year, it is hoping to award another 4,000-5,000 scholarships.

For Region Five, alone, he said, the government is will to fund the cost for some 5,000 scholarships for residents who are willing to pursue tertiary or technical education. Those who do not meet university entry requirements, he said, can undergo a remedial programme that will enable them to matriculate.

Interested persons can contract the GOAL Scholarship Secretariat for more information.
“We are remaining faithful to all the thing we promised, we cannot solve every problem immediately but we remain faithful to the things that we promised,” Dr Jagdeo said, pointing out that the government wanted citizens to pay less taxes, have more access to healthcare, education and more people employed and it is doing all it can to make these happen.

The government will also deliver on its promise of free education at the University of Guyana, said Dr Jagdeo. “We believe that if we have healthy people, educated people, then we are in good shape for the future,” he told the residents assembled at Novar and repeated this message at the meeting held at the Bath Primary School about three hours after.