The construction of the new Diamond Hospital, which will house 75 beds for patients and modern equipment for optimized services, is well underway and Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony anticipates that the facility will be operational by year-end.
“We’ve made substantial progress with the foundation, we are now putting up the uprights and by the end of next month, we should have all of the frame in place, we are on target in terms of the timing and I’m assured that by the end of the year that the hospital will be fully functional,” the Health Minister said during a site visit on Tuesday.
The China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned enterprise commonly referred to as Sinopharm, was selected to construct the hospital. It is among six new regional hospitals that will be constructed this year.
On Tuesday, the minister said the hospital will have a modern emergency and accident department operating on a 24- hour basis, modern laboratories, two modern operating theatres and a minor theatre.
There will also be outpatient clinics attached for persons living on the East Bank who often travel to the main referral hospital for clinic services.
“We will have a complete area for imaging and it’s not only going to be digital X-rays but in each of these hospitals, we will have CT scans [available] so the quality of imaging will improve because at most of our hospitals we have been using X-rays and ultrasounds, so we will be complementing that by adding CT scans,” Dr Anthony said.
The Health Minister is satisfied with the progress made thus far.
The other five hospitals will be built at Anna Regina, Region Two; De Kinderen (Tuschen was originally planned), Region Three; Enmore, Region Four; Bath, Region Five; and Skeldon, Region Six.
A new public hospital is being built at New Amsterdam along with the Paediatric and Maternal hospital at Ogle, East Coast Demerara, which will also have a special focus on heart disease treatment and cancer care.
