Dear Editor,
IN an article titled, “IDB finds New Amsterdam Hospital in shocking state” published on Sunday, August 21, 2022, in another local newspaper, the author expounded on a report by the Inter-American Development Bank on the regional healthcare institution. The report stated that “according to an August 2022 report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the hospital has not received any maintenance or needed upgrades since its establishment 18 years ago.”

Of note, I stand to refute such a report by the IDB that no maintenance works were conducted on the New Amsterdam Hospital for 18 years, since the establishment of the hospital and, further, in refuting such claims, I would like to highlight a few repairs and maintenance projects which were executed between 2012 – 2014 fiscal years under the RDC Region Six – Health Sector Programme:

1) Repainting the entire inside of the hospital
2) Refurbishing two of the three theatres under technical guidance
3) Replacing most of the air conditioning units with new ones
4) Constant servicing and repairs to the sewerage system and replacement of sewerage pumps
5) Construction of a New Accident and Emergency building in order to separate it from the Outpatients Department
6) Installation of a new 500 KVA generator to meet the existing and expanding needs of the hospital (at that time the hospital had a 65 KVA generator which was totally inadequate)
7) On a yearly basis various medical equipment were procured to meet healthcare delivery
8) Repairs and rehabilitative works to the external fence
Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive and I can only give an account for what transpired up to 2015 as the Regional Executive Officer.
However, it would have been prudent on the part of the writers of the report to have studied their subject in more depth before publishing such fallacious claims.

Sincerely yours,
Paul Ramrattan, CBMBA, MCBI, ICEA (Grad. Acct.)