Major improvements at Infectious Diseases Hospital – Dr Anthony

Two years after the Ministry of Health admitted its first patient to the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony said a host of infrastructural improvements have been made to the facility, to provide quality care to persons.

Speaking during Thursday’s COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony said the facility has come a long way since 2020.

“Persons will recall that there was no electricity to the building, no water supply. It wasn’t connecting to any sewage. Nothing was working. In addition to that, the place was not ready for patients.

“We had to re-do many of the rooms. Some of the corridors had manholes in them so we had to fix those. So, there were lots of infrastructural things that had to be done to make sure that the place was ready,” the minister noted.

He said a 52-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) had to be constructed to facilitate critically ill patients.  Over time, the ministry was able to install pipe oxygen to the facility and a new triage area, to allow persons admitted to the facility to be screened there.

 A dialysis system was also integrated at the institution to accommodate persons in need of treatment.

“There are patients that would come in that would have renal failure, and we needed to dialyse them. So, we have put in a dialysis system there. In addition to that we have an operating theatre at. So, persons who are Covid positive and would need urgent surgical operation, we can operate [on them]. Within the last two years there have been lots of improvements, and a lot of other services that we are beginning to add to the facility, so basically you are able to get full service at the Infectious Diseases Hospital,” he related.

The COVID hospital, as it is popularly called, had an initial estimated cost of $1.6 billion dollars.