Vehicle handed over to improve maternal health services in Region Seven
Health care delivery at the Bartica Regional Hospital, Region Seven, has been boosted after the institution received a vehicle dedicated to the maternal child health programme.
The $7.8 million vehicle was handed by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, M.P, to the Regional Health Officer Dr. Edward Sagala in the hospital’s compound. The vehicle will be stationed at the recently completed maternal child health building in the township.
Minister Teixeira said the investment forms part of the Regional Democratic Council’s programme to improve health care delivery in the region.
“The Bartica Hospital compound is where the new hospital is going to go with the Government of Guyana – Indian loan, so we will go through the next two years having a new hospital, new facilities, new functions and greater service to Bartica people and sub-region so that less people are sent medevac and sent down to Georgetown.”
“So this is a clear indication that we want to ensure that Bartica and surrounding areas have access to high quality health services,” the Minister stated.
The RHO said the investment by government is timely and will play a critical role for pregnant women and their children and will serve Bartica and surrounding communities.
Speaking on the importance of the vehicle, Dr. Sagala said, “we only had one vehicle… and that used to do everything from malaria, environmental health and anything else related to health. But this vehicle is going to be dedicated purely to maternal child health.”
He said the reason for the vehicle being dedicated to the maternal child health programme is due to the number of cases the township and surrounding communities face.
A mammoth sum of $73.3 billion has been budgeted to modernise the country’s health sector through the Ministry of Health. The sum is $19.7 billion more than what was allocated to the sector in 2021.
Of the sum budgeted, $12.4 billion will go towards the design and construction of a state-of-the-art paediatric and maternal hospital. The West Demerara and Bartica regional hospitals will be upgraded along with the construction of six modern regional hospitals at Anna Regina, Tuschen, Diamond, Enmore, Bath and No. 75 Village, Corentyne.