SENIOR Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, on Thursday, tabled two agreements in the National Assembly to cater for the construction of modern healthcare facilities in five of Guyana’s 10 regions during the 48th Sitting of the 12th Parliament.

According to a release, the first Export Finance Agreement (No. CIE/BC-DL/Guyana/0020014380) dated June 14, 2022 between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the United Kingdom Export Finance totalling Euros 161,016,949, allows for the financing, design and construction of a state-of-the-art paediatric and maternal hospital at Ogle, as well as the delivery of medical equipment to the institution.

The second one is a Deferred Payment Agreement (Lot One to Lot Six dated July 12, 2022 between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the China CAMC Engineering Company Limited for a total amount of Euros 136,132,800 for the financing of government’s regional hospitals project.

Under the regional hospitals project, six hospitals will be constructed in five regions: one in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam); one at De Kinderen, Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara); one at Diamond and another at Enmore, in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica); one in Bath, Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) and one in Number 75 Village, Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne). Each modern hospital is slated to be equipped with 75 beds.

Meanwhile, the paediatric and maternal hospital at Ogle will be equipped with 256 beds.
In his 2022 Budget Speech to the National Assembly, the Finance Minister stated that: “Ensuring a modern, world class healthcare system is a paramount objective for our government. To this end, we will leverage existing and soon-to-be-built public healthcare facilities, private investment, as well as public-private partnerships in the sector, with the aim of not only meeting the needs of our citizens and residents, but also to be able to offer medical treatment as an export service through medical tourism.”

The minister also referred to the construction of the paediatric and maternal hospital as well as the six new regional hospitals, while noting that the six hospitals which will be constructed will catapult healthcare delivery (beyond current levels provided by existing regional facilities) and will ‘reduce the undue cost and burden of referrals to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’.

On July 8, 2022, in keeping with government’s commitment to modernise the healthcare system in the country, President Irfaan Ali announced that a national healthcare initiative would commence in collaboration with the Mount Sinai Health System, an internationally recognised healthcare provider and Hess Corporation to improve access to and the quality of healthcare for Guyanese.
The initiative allows the Mount Sinai/Hess Corporation partnership to work with the Government of Guyana to assist and advise government how to develop and implement a high-quality primary healthcare system including specialised services in cardiology and oncology, to bring about significant improvement at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the release concluded.