App on the cards for reducing hospital wait times, Health Minister announces at sod turning for new New Amsterdam Hospital

Last Updated on Sunday, 7 January 2024, 14:46 by Denis Chabrol

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Sunday announced that government was preparing to roll out a digital doctor appointments system for the first time in Guyana aimed at reducing overall wait times.

“You will be able to have an app on your phone where you can then make appointments with the hospital, and when you go in there you shouldn’t be spending more than 15 to 30 minutes before you’re seen by a medical professional,” he  announced at the sod turning for the new New Amsterdam Hospital, the first Level 5 hospital in Berbice.

Dr Anthony and President Irfaan Ali both urged the Austria-headquartered contracting company, VAMED Engineering, to fast-track the construction of the US$161 million health care facility. “I would also like to thank the VAMED team for the work that they have done so far but, as they know, we would like to see them accelerate and deliver this project even faster than the proposed time lines so we would be working with them to expedite,” Dr Anthony said.  For his part, the President said instead of 36 months, “my outside date is 30 months” and so he expected that piles would be driven in another four weeks. “There is very little excuse that can be given these days because the weather is great and we have built up enough capacity in terms of material in this country,” he said.

Prior to their remarks, the VAMED Project Director Walter Puhringer pledged that his company and its partners would make every effort to complete construction of the world class hospital “on time” at a maximum of three years from March, 2023 and “in quality and to your full satisfaction and to your expectation.”

The VAMED official said his company in September started the basic design and planning in September 2023 and was now finalising the design and functionalities of the hospital. With the contracts for the local engineering and design service partner already sealed, he added that within the next two weeks VAMED local companies would be engaged in site mobilisation within the next three to four weeks. “Within one month, you can see here heavy works already going on, preparing the site, doing back-filling with sand, doing the fencing with the neighbourhood and starting with the earthworks as early as in March/beginning of April,” Mr Puhringer said.

The Health Minister said the 220-bed hospital would include five operating theatres one of which would be dedicated for heart surgeries. “So think about that: if you got a cardiac issue, you have to go down to Georgetown. With this CAT LAB that we’ll be putting in here, we would be able to do all of that right here in Region Six,” he said. The Health Minister said the new New Amsterdam Hospital would be able to provide organ transplants like being done at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

The new New Amsterdam Hospital is expected to include not only digital X-Ray system but also Computed Tomography (CT) scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging  (MRI), as well a two-story teaching facility and another building to house a psychiatric treatment facility.