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Plans moving apace for hospitals to be upgraded to ‘Smart Health Care Facilities’

Nov 15, 2017 News

 

As the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) prepare Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean for the first of its kind, ‘Smart Health Care Facilities,’ the organizations on Sunday last reached out to the public for interested persons to complete the retrofitting works on the selected hospitals.
The Smart Hospital Project actually seeks to make hospitals in Guyana capable enough to function, even when disaster strikes the nation. They will be environmentally-friendly and have structural and operational safety. It also promises improved air quality and working conditions while powered by cheaper electricity.
Although the organizations have not yet made public the list of hospitals that will be upgraded under this title, it was disclosed in an advertisement placed in this publication’s Sunday Edition, that retrofitting is aimed at making the selected health care facilities safe from the effects of natural disasters and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The advertisement went on to inform that tenders for the project can be expected during the first quarter of 2018, while construction is projected to be completed by the end of 2019.
Additionally, the design and inspection teams, as noted, should be inclusive of architects and engineers among others. It is also required that the companies and or their key personnel have at least five years’ experience in the field and be able to manage three to five healthcare facilities simultaneously.
The teams will prepare a detailed report after inspecting the existing medical facilities to determine the retrofitting requirements. They will additionally, prepare among other things, the preliminary designs, cost estimates and time schedules along with tender and construction documents, which will advise on the award of construction and supply contracts.
The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) last month hosted a two-day workshop for contractors and designers at the Pegasus Hotel which sought to sensitize on the Smart Healthcare Facility and adumbrate the procurement process for design, inspection and reconstructing works for the new Smart Hospitals across Guyana.
The project is estimated to cost at around $5.4 Billion, which will be financed by the UK Department for International Development (UK DFID). Hospitals that attract a greater population around the country will be upgraded to meet the demands of its people in both urban and hinterland areas.
The initiative has been implemented for Regional health facilities in Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings said, “It is important to note that building a Smart Hospital is more than bringing together connected devices on a high speed network infrastructure. It means rethinking the care processes, management systems and even physical facilities. To drive a new way of delivering care is to simply introduce the automation and connected devices.”
The Smart Hospital, she said, will introduce a new process to provide quality health care that efficiently and effectively meets the demands of patients.
Meanwhile, British High Commissioner to Guyana Greg Quinn said the project is evident that the UK is not only interested in the security sector, but with projects of such (health care) nature. He stated, “So far assessments of 71 Guyanese health facilities have been undertaken by 27 Guyanese volunteers, trained to do such a task”.
According to him, the assessments made resulted in a priority list of ten health facilities being submitted to the Ministry of Public Health for ‘consideration’. Quinn noted that the priority facilities were able to meet the criteria in relation to their population, vulnerability and impact to best serve the aims of the project.

 

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