With contract awarded, maternal and children’s hospital could open in 2024

A new maternal and children’s hospital, slated for Georgetown, could be completed by late 2024 as the contract for the hospital has already been awarded to an Austrian company, President Dr. Irfaan Ali has said.

The company, VAMED, had been in talks with the government for months. And at the sidelines of an event on Tuesday night, the President said those talks were “fairly advanced.”

“We would’ve already moved to the award so it is just finalising the finer details and having the project move to implementation,” the Head-of-State highlighted in response to questions from the News Room.

He later stated clearly that the contract had been awarded to VAMED, through a programme with the Austrian government.

VAMED will be constructing this hospital under a design-build-finance (DBF) procurement model. Though this mode, a single contract is awarded for the design, construction, and full or partial financing of a facility (which, in this case, is the new hospital).

According to its website, VAMED is a global provider for hospitals and other facilities in the healthcare sector.

The VAMED portfolio ranges from project development, planning and turnkey construction via maintenance, technical, commercial and infrastructure services to the total facility management of healthcare facilities.

It was also noted that the company covers all areas of healthcare, from prevention and wellness to acute care, rehabilitation and nursing. And it says that it is the leading private provider of rehabilitation services.

In health tourism, with VAMED Vitality World, the company also says it is the largest operator of thermal spas and health resorts in Austria.

Meanwhile, President Ali emphasised that the government is eyeing a rapid advancement of its plans to modernise the local health sector.

And he said that he wants people to benefit from the specialised services that will be offered at the maternal and children’s hospital from late 2024.

In March, it was reported that the government was examining a maternal and children’s hospital that would offer specialised care to patients.

Then, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said that talks already started with bilateral agencies in order to establish this state-of-the-art facility here in Guyana. He did not identify those agencies.

The News Room was reliably informed that this hospital is expected to comprise operating theatres, a paediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and an obstetrics department.

In September, at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), President Ali had announced that Austria, a country in Central Europe, was interested in constructing a maternal and children’s hospital here.