The Ministry of Health will now be conducting inspections without notice at health care facilities in light of the recent dumping of medical waste at Camp Street.

In a press release, the ministry said it was alerted to this criminal act in a recent edition of the Kaieteur News. It said too investigations have so far revealed that the waste was not dumped by the Georgetown Hospital “and we are reasonably satisfied that it did not come from the private hospitals.”

The ministry affirms that the issue of safety at hospitals and health centres is of paramount importance for the overall safety of the population. Hospitals, laboratories and other health care environments, including stand-alone doctors’ private facilities must comply with the safety regulations. The ministry recognises that it would have to incrementally increase the rigidity and enforcement of the rules to ensure greater compliance. It has conducted inspections after giving a facility two weeks’ notice however it will now add inspections without notice to its mandate. This will not replace inspections with notice that are intended for licensing and renewal of licences.

According to the release it has been more than one year since the Health Facilities Licensing Act has been in operation and it has worked to ensure that the facilities meet licensing requirements. The ministry said it had been persuaded by doctors that the new Act should not immediately apply to private doctors’ offices however, it hopes to have them included under the act in the future.