Upgrades to Festival City health centre almost complete

Residents of Festival City and other nearby communities in Georgetown will soon be able to benefit from a wider array of outpatient services as upgrades to the facility are nearly completed.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony on Thursday said the two-storey building is expected to accommodate a dental section, a physiotherapy department and a laboratory. Also, it is expected that eight medical doctors can be accommodated on-site to provide diagnostic services to patients.

“They are now finishing off the project, we are hoping that they can hand that back to us by the end of this month and once we get it this month we will start preparing to commission it as a health centre, or polyclinic,” Dr. Anthony said.

He further noted that additional works will be done to construct an x-ray room to provide these imaging services to patients.

“When the project was originally conceived, I don’t think they made allowances for an x-ray room because these rooms gotta be specially designed so we will have to retrofit it to make sure it complies with those standards,” he explained.

While the rest of the facility could be commissioned and opened in about one month’s time, the extra x-ray services, he said, may take another two months.

In addition to Festival City, other health facilities at Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD); Industry, ECD and Campbellville, Georgetown are expected to receive substantial upgrades as part of efforts to provide additional healthcare coverage.