Delayed renovation of Suddie Hospital hampers surgery

Jan 22, 2021 News

The Suddie Hospital.

Kaieteur News – Delayed works on the operation theatre at the Suddie Public Hospital is hampering the execution of major surgeries and causing an additional financial burden, according to the Regional Health Officer of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Dr. Ranjeev Singh.
The hospital, which is the largest in the region, serves as its main hospital and its services even extend to Wakenaam Island and Moruca in Region One.
In 2018, a $40.9 million contract was signed for the prospective state-of-the-art theatre. It was awarded to a contractor, Builders Hardware, Rakesh Samaroo, who signed the contract along with the Regional Executive Officer [REO] of Region Two at the time, Rupert Hopkinson.
Singh was quoted as saying, “We want to have that theatre up and running so that we can not only reduce our refers to Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), we can do some major surgery here as well. That is what I’m hoping to achieve, or accomplish. By the end of this half of the year, we can start having surgeries done here that was not done before.”
He spoke to the DPI on Wednesday, where he initially stated that the region plans to fully operationalize the $40.9 million operating theatre by the middle of the year as only minor surgeries can be conducted at the facility currently since the operating theatre has not been fully furnished yet. Singh expressed that he is hopeful that this will soon remedied since the delayed works mean that patients are referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), which paves the way for an additional financial burden on the region.
Additionally, the REO stated that funds to ensure that the project is completed will be allocated in this year’s budget.