VICE-PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo, on Tuesday, announced that once the new hospital comes on stream in New Amsterdam, Region Six, the existing facility will be transformed into a mental health facility.
The Government of Guyana is constructing a US$161 million New Amsterdam General Hospital in Fort Canje Berbice to enhance healthcare delivery to residents of the ancient county.

The Vice-President, during an engagement with residents at New Amsterdam, said that the new hospital will be European standard with five operating theatres, explaining: “The kind of care here is what you will get in Europe.”
He added: “We plan to the take the old hospital (currently on operation), rehabilitate it and that will then become the mental health facility for the country, so the old hospital would be converted into the mental health hospital.”
This, the Vice-President said, will change the quality of healthcare altogether.

Further, he told those gathered that with the completion of six of the twelve hospitals which are being constructed nationwide, about 3,000 people will be hired and that figure would double when all are completed.
“We have started recruiting and training doctors, nurses, people at every skill level,” Jagdeo told residents.

The facilities will have 24-hour accident and emergency, 24-hour labs, a suite of imaging services, including ultrasound, digital X-Ray, and CT scans, along with operation theatres and more.
The six hospitals are being constructed through a partnership with China’s Sinopharm International, and serve as part of a larger $37.2 billion initiative that will modernise the regional healthcare system in Guyana.