$50M expansion for GPHC maternity unit
─ MOU signed by govt, Canadian Bank Note Company (Guyana Lottery Company)
─ caters for increased bed capacity
─ to improve maternity care at public hospital
DPI, Guyana, Monday, April 29, 2019
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) maternity unit will undergo additional expansion. This is after the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Public Health and the Canadian Bank Note Company through the Guyana Lottery Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the project.
The Maternity Unit Expansion project comes at the cost of $50M, of this amount, $31M has been allotted for the infrastructure and $19M for equipping the expanded facility. The monies provided for this project stands as part of a contractual agreement from Canadian Bank Note Company with the Government of Guyana for the operation of the Guyana Lottery Company.
Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, who delivered remarks at a brief ceremony to unveil the three-dimensional images of the project, was excited over this step taken. She stated that this particular intervention is critical to safeguarding and ensuring quality maternity care at the facility.
“The MCH’s [Maternal and Child Health’s] objective is to provide the highest possible standard of culturally appropriate maternal care delivered in an atmosphere of trust and respect of human dignity and the expansion of the maternity wing provides us with just the opportunity to do so.”
The nation can look forward to “less negativity in maternal care at the GPHC,” as the minister also emphasised that there will also be special arrangements for high-risk pregnancies and other women with complications during pregnancy.
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan explained how the project came about and hinted that there can be an expectation of Guyana’s social sectors benefitting from similar clauses in the future contractual agreement between the two bodies.
The timeliness of this project complements budgetary allocations for continued renovations to the hospital’s maternity unit. It also complements the maternity wing which was added to the unit at a combined cost of more than $350M after corrective works were done on the building.
General Manager of the Guyana Lottery Company, Tracy Lewis remarked that the Canadian Bank Note company has committed to the general maintenance of the expanded facility upon its completion.
The expansion project caters for isolation areas for maternity cases with specialised needs and increased bed capacity. A review of the hospital’s maternity unit records reveals that 8,324 admissions were made in 2017 and 8,277 in 2018. With these figures in mind, the hospital’s administration welcomes the expansion as it will support the work done at the unit.
Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital, (retd) Brigadier George Lewis said, “because of the high amount of admissions and deliveries, we are constantly challenged to find in-patient beds, often particularly between the period September to February when there are more deliveries than often, we are challenged. Consequently, the board of directors and administration of the hospital decided to address this issue and it started way back in 2016 when this new wing was built and in 2018 last year, we did some internal renovations.”
The signing of the MOU, along with the initiation of the project showcases the government’s continued efforts to improve working conditions in the public health sector while ensuring optimal maternal health care is available to women.
Delicia Haynes
Images: Giovanni Gajie