Three new hospitals to be completed by year end – Dr Jagdeo

The manifesto promise of the PPP/C Government to complete six new hospitals by 2025 is well on track. This is according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, who highlighted this at his weekly press conference held on Thursday at Freedom House, Robb Street.

Dr Jagdeo assured that three Regional Hospitals will be completed this year and the remaining three will be completed within the first quarter of 2025.

“I think they told me that the last report I had, which was about 2 or 3 months ago, that three are on track to be completed by year-end, and then the others would go into next year. So, I think we’d have to examine it, but they would be completed maybe in the first quarter or so next year,” he indicated.

The GS also emphasised that in addition to completing the hospitals, the next step for the Government is to address the challenge of having adequate human resources to effectively manage the new facilities, citing the possibility of employing medical professionals from other countries. This, he reminded, is aside from the Government’s intention to train as many Guyanese in the medical field.

“We are already looking into how we staff these hospitals because we can’t just complete the hospitals. We have to now get people to run these hospitals. And therefore, that’s a big challenge now. And we may have to recruit people from abroad, apart from training our own people. And that’s why we keep seeing as many people who want to go into training in the medical field. We will pay for them to be trained too, like nurses, nursing aides, and stuff like that,” the GS explained.

Regional Hospitals at Diamond and Enmore in Region Four, as well as Bath, West Coast Berbice, Region Five are poised for completion by year-end.

Progress is also underway for hospitals in Lima, Region Two, De Kinderen, Region Three, No. 75 village, Region Six which are all scheduled for completion within the first quarter of next year.

The completion of these six hospitals will mark a significant achievement for the Government in delivering on its manifesto’s commitment and striving to achieve a world-class healthcare system in Guyana, providing citizens with quality and equally accessible services nationwide.