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Over $100M expended already in quest to rehabilitate Health Ministry
Ongoing construction works at the Health Ministry’s Brickdam complex.
By Sharmain Cornette
A new building for the Ministry of Health is currently being designed but sufficient resources are yet to be mobilised to see the proposed plans to fruition.
At least this is according to Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who during an interview with this newspaper revealed that his office staffers among other Ministry of Health workers are yet to be accommodated in a comfortable location.
It was almost one year ago that the buildings housing the Health Ministry’s Brickdam headquarters were gutted by fire, believed to have been set by arsonists. Several sections of the Ministry, and by extension staffers, were displaced.
Some were situated at locations outside of the Brickdam headquarters compound.
However, expansion plans are already apace to address this situation, the Minister said. At the moment, massive construction works are ongoing on a new building in the health Ministry’s compound.
“My office staffers have been borrowing space, so part of the new building will accommodate them as well as the mental health workers who currently have no office.”
It is also expected that the new building will have room to house the Ministry’s Crisis Hotline section as well as the Transport Department and the Vaccination Programme, according to the Minister.
“Right now all of these departments are squeezed in together, so when the new building is completed, we expect that our workers will be provided with a more comfortable working environment.”
But the new building under construction will in no way compensate for the buildings that were gutted by fire, the Minister noted.
It is for this reason, he said, that measures are in train to construction a spanking new building.
So far more than $100M has been expended to restore and construct spaces to ensure the sustained operation of the Health Ministry, according to the Minister.
He stressed that immense support has been forthcoming from a number of organisations.
Recent construction works include a new boardroom, which the Minister revealed will soon be fitted with audio-visual equipment and other modern mechanisms which will in effect transform it into a near state-of-the-art conference room.
But even with uncertainty as to where the requisite sum will come from to complete the restoration of the Ministry’s complex, Minister Ramsammy has asserted that the services offered by the Ministry will in no way be compromised.
It was soon after the fire last July that the Minister had made this ambitious declaration despite the fact that some services would have been and still are offered at different locations.
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