Carlton Hall, Mon Choisi residents to benefit from Smart Health Centres

DPI, Guyana, Monday, October 23, 2017

Residents living in Carlton Hall Village in Mahaicony and Mon Choisi Village in West Berbice, both in Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) will soon be benefitting from services of two new health centres designed and constructed in keeping with the concepts of “smart health facilities”.

“Smart” health facilities ensure the provision of dynamic and engaging settings that cater to the individualised needs of patients and identify opportunities for staff and administrators that broaden treatment options as well as facilities at the location where that treatment is provided.

The Administration of Region 5 awarded contracts to G. Singh Contracting Services last month, for the construction of one Smart Health Centre at Carlton Hall Mahaicony and another at Mon Choisi at a cost of $26.5M and $28M respectively.

Region 5 Engineer, Mr. Dhanpaul Sukha explained that there are certain facilities which will be built into the two centres. These include access ramps for disabled persons and washroom facilities, lots of natural ventilation, shatterproof glass windows adequate fire protection, as well as green economy concepts such as installation of LED light bulbs in the buildings instead of the traditional fluorescent lights.

The facility at Carlton Hall will replace the building currently being used at neighbouring Highdam which housed the health facilities on the upper floor, thereby posing a hazard for patients who had to negotiate the stairs. That situation Sukha said had been totally out of sync with World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) standards for smart health facilities. The credo of the smart health facilities he emphasised is “Safe + Green =Smart.”

Sukha explained that as at last week the new Health Center at Carlton Hall was 40 percent complete.

The centre at Mon Choisi replaces the one currently at Cotton Tree which had been constructed on a plot of privately owned land which had been a source of controversy.

Sukha reported that work had not quite begun on the centre at Mon Choisi because of squatting on the proposed site. However, with the issue resolved (at the time of reporting) work on the Mon Choisi Health Centre will commence the week of October 23, 2017.

The contractor has been given twelve weeks and ten weeks to complete the Carlton Hall and Mon Choisi projects respectively. This will ensure that both facilities are completed finished before year end.

Sukha disclosed that as the Regional Engineer he had attended a very intensive training program by the WHO and the PAHO on the requirements for a smart health facility and the designs of the two new Health Centres had been prepared in keeping with the basic principles acquired.

 

By: Clifford Stanley