CONSTRUCTION of the new state-of-the-art maternal and pediatric hospital in Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, is progressing on schedule, according to Project Manager, Nigel Landrel-Smith.

Landrel-Smith, during an interview with the Sunday Chronicle, noted that the setting up, mobilisation, and clearance of the site, have been completed; the laying of the foundation will begin shortly.

The Project Manager highlighted that the ground is currently being raised to a sufficient level in order to build the hospital.
The facility will have 256 beds, cover 24,000 square meters gross floor areas and 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, while the EUR$149 million (GUY$31.9 billion) contract for the hospital was signed on June 8, 2022.

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 pediatrics.

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.

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. It has 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 becompleted.