RESIDENTS of the Region One (Barima-Waini) community of Mabaruma are set to benefit immensely from improved medical services due to the modernisation and conversion of the medical facility there into a SMART Hospital.

Making the disclosure on Monday on his Facebook page, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said:
“We have completed the refurbishment of the operating theatre, the ICU, the recovery room, and the maternity wards. The emergency department will be completed shortly, and then the hospital will be fully operational by January 2022.”

According to the ‘SMART Hospital’ concept, the term refers to a medical facility that is both safe and ‘green’ in its operations. In the case of the Mabaruma Hospital, the upgrades are being done as part of an $835M (US$4.175M) project funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), which involves the refurbishment of four other regional hospitals.

Earlier this year, Minister Anthony had explained that the conversion of the Mabaruma Hospital was estimated to cost approximately US$800,000, and will see the facility boasting a spanking new Accident and Emergency Department, a renovated recovery room, a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a refurbished kitchen, a sterilisation room, and not one, but two surgical theatres; one small and one large.

Minister Anthony had also said that the project to convert the five local hospitals was expected to be concluded by the end of this year.

Already, the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and the Lethem Hospital have been upgraded as SMART hospitals, while work is currently being done at the Leonora Hospital in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), and the Paramakatoi facility in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).

Outside of the conversion of the Mabaruma Hospital into a ‘SMART’ facility, Dr. Anthony said that the government has also invested in the construction of a new storage bond in which to house the region’s pharmaceuticals. “The actual building has already been completed, and will become operational by next month,” the Health Minister said.

Added to that, Minister Anthony said that efforts are being made to ensure that Region One not only has an adequate supply of medications and proper facilities, but also enough qualified medical practitioners.

He said that construction has already begun on new living quarters for doctors who are being sent to work in the region. “Right now, they are doing the foundation for the building,” the Health Minister reported, and that when construction works are completed, “the Ministry of Health will deploy a surgeon to the region.”

At the moment, he said, the Mabaruma district has general physicians, but no one specialised to conduct surgeries.