Govt. awards $23 million for N/A maternal unit

Oct 08, 2017 News

Just over 23 million has been approved by Cabinet for the construction of the first phase of a maternal unit for the Region Six New Amsterdam Hospital. This disclosure was made by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, during Friday’s Post Cabinet Press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
According to Harmon, the sum of $23,000,064 was awarded for the initial phase of the project, which will consist of labour rooms, including two private rooms that will enable husbands to witness deliveries. The unit will also have in place an operational theatre and a maternity ward consisting of 50 beds.
Harmon disclosed on Friday that once completed, the project will enable the Region Six Health Authority to better cater to the approximately 3,000 deliveries that are done in the region annually.
The move to upgrade the Region Six Maternal Unit, follows on the heels of a directive issued by President David Granger soon after taking office in 2015 to improve maternal facilities across the country. “His vision is to have a maternal hospital, but these steps are preliminary steps,” Harmon informed yesterday.
As part of the expanded plan, he disclosed that a number of other health facilities have been benefiting from improvement works. He spoke of improvements at the Leonora hospital which has been extended to ensure that there is a maternal facility as well as at the hospitals in Essequibo, Bartica and also the West Demerara Regional Hospital. The Minister of State, revealed too, that hospitals at Mabaruma and Lethem will shortly be subjected to similar improvement works as well.
These measures, he said, are intended “to ensure we place focus on our pregnant women folk. The President…gave some clear guidance about what he would like to see for maternal unit across the country.”
Harmon said too, “We have been deploying trained doctors where there were previously medexes so that we take the quality health care to our citizens that they deserve.”
According to Harmon, the model of the New Amsterdam maternal unit will in fact be the same model that other facilities will embrace. “This will be a part of a maternal package,” said Harmon as he disclosed that “our Minister [of Public Health] has been strong on this and she has actually visited facilities, looked at best practices and you can be assured that our pregnant women will have quality service to deliver the men and women of the future.”

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