By Bibi Khatoon
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital, Brigadier (Rtd) George Lewis has criticised contractors for substandard work as the new Maternity Unit was finally commissioned on Friday, November 17, 2017, after years of delay.
Construction of the Unit was scheduled to commence in 2014, however, it commenced in February 2015 and construction lasted for one year. The project was completed in July 2016 by PD Contracting Company to an overall cost of $352M.
Employees began occupying the building shortly after but were forced to vacate after numerous defects were found including the flaking of walls and flooring, non-functioning lights and locks. The contractor was made to correct the issues.
In his address today, the CEO expressed hope that there will not be further issues with the building in the future, as he blasted contractors for not taking pride in their job.
“It is my hope that contractors take greater pride in the manner with which they perform their duties so that projects can be completed on time and without defects. They must also understand that time lost is equivalent to money lost and create serious inconvenience to end users,” the CEO said.
The institution is hoping to improve the safety of mothers and their children with the extension of the facility. Chair of the GPHC, Kesaundra Alves said that the neonatal unit of the facility is fully equipped to reduce deaths of premature babies while nurses are specially trained to take care of that vulnerable population.
Head of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology programme, Dr Lucio Pedro disclosed, however, that the unit will not put an end to the situation where four patients are being made to sleep on one bed.
Dr Pedro said, “this is the first part of the planned extension, we eagerly await the start and completion of the extension of the prenatal ward and post-natal ward where at the moment you may find four patients in one bed—two mothers and two neonatal.”
The extension caters to labour and delivery, six delivery rooms, two operation rooms, recovery room, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Family Planning Office and training rooms for the residency programme.
He added that one of the biggest challenges in the department is to decrease the instances of maternal and neonatal deaths.
Dr Ertenisa Hamilton, who is the Maternal and Child Health Officer, revealed that the Inter-American Development Bank is onboard to provide additional equipment and staff training.
