PRESIDENT, Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Sunday, turned the sod for a EUR$149 million (GUY$31.9 billion) Paediatric and Maternal Hospital (PMH) at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara.
The facility will have 256 beds, will cover 24,000 square meters gross floor areas and will have an imaging suite which will include CT scans, X rays, and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning equipment.
The hospital will also have a modern laboratory which will focus on conducting sophisticated testing.
It is the first project to come out of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Guyana and Austria, which was first signed in 2018. The project for the hospital was added in July 2021 while the contract for the hospital was signed on June 8 of this year.
Speaking at the sod-turning ceremony held at the proposed site of the hospital, President Ali emphasised the importance of bilateral agreements such as the one inked with Austria to see the realisation of the hospital.
“Bilateral relations are critical development to any country. Today is a special day in many regards, not just in the bilateral relationship between Guyana and Austria. We have to be able to build trust with our partners and I’ve been working hard to build that trust and bring back that trust. We live in a global community. We must have conversation with everyone,” the President said.
The project also marks Guyana’s first UK Export Credit Agency financing and is being done in accordance with the FIDIC yellow book standards, a standard contract where the design is carried out by the contractor.
Present at the event was UK High Commissioner, Jane Miller, who commended the project and noted that the equipment for the hospital will be sourced from the UK.
“So it will be high quality equipment. This is the first time Guyana has used UK Export Finance; the fact that you prioritise this is excellent,” Miller said.
GLOBAL PROVIDER
The hospital is being built by VAMED Engineering, which was appointed by the Government of Austria. Headquartered in Austria, VAMED Engineering is a global provider for hospitals and health care facilities.
The company has implemented more than 1,000 projects across the globe, operating in 100 countries on five continents. They have provided high-end services for more than 820 health facilities. In Latin America and the Caribbean, they have done projects in Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia and Haiti. The hospital in Guyana is expected to take two years to complete.
Managing Director of VAMED Engineering, Angelo Rizzuti and Austrian Trade Commissioner for Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and the Caribbean, Dr. Andreas Schmid, were also present at the event and made brief remarks.
The new facility is expected to not only serve Region Four but will be a Level Five referral centre for women and children of all regions in Guyana, who are referred for specialised healthcare not available in their region. The three patient care groups that will be referred to the hospital will be maternal mothers, neonatal care and paediatrics.
Currently, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is Guyana’s only referral hospital.
VISION
The PMH facility seeks to aid in the continuous effort being made to improve maternal and child health, reduce maternal and child mortality rates and improve equity and access to tertiary health care services for all citizens.
President, Dr. Ali noted that the hospital fits into the country’s overall developmental plan to improve, not just the physical infrastructure, but to develop the country’s human resource through better provisions in education and health.
“You will be well taken care of in this system. We are going to deliver to you the best system and package for you to live a healthy life,” the President said.
“All of this is critical as we embark on a bold pathway to national development and regional influence. It is building out a health care model that is not only focusing locally but focusing on the region, focusing on the diaspora.”
Also making remarks at the event was Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who called the realisation of the hospital a milestone in the development of public health in Guyana.
“The turning of the sod would usher in a new era of public health in Guyana. [The Paediatric and Maternal Hospital] would be the largest public health investment in the entire history of Guyana,” Dr. Anthony noted.
Dr. Anthony said the hospital will also include a full cardiac suite where paediatric surgery will be done; while there will also be specialised care in the area of paediatric oncology for children suffering from cancer.
“The services that will be offered at this hospital will be far advanced,” said Dr. Anthony.
“The whole purpose of what we are doing here is to offer services that have never been offered in this country. Our primary goal is to reduce morbidity and by doing that reduce people dying from these diseases. The investment that we are making here is people centric investment to ensure our people benefit from world class health care in Guyana free of cost.”
