Construction is on schedule for the upgrade of the $1.2B Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) in-patient facility between Lamaha and Thomas streets and although there have been a few delays with construction designs these have been rectified, Director, Facilities Man-agement Secretariat, GPHC, Parmanand Samaroo said on Wednesday.
Pile driving has been completed and contractors have commenced work on the foundation of walls and supporting columns for the construction of the first floor of the facility, Samaroo disclosed during an interview with the Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) on Wednesday, the agency reported.
In the meantime, several departments had to be re-located to facilitate construction and the Gynaecology Clinic was re-sited to Ward E, southern compound, the Low Vision Centre to the multi-purpose room area, beneath the medical library, and the public safety department, internal security, shifted to the ground floor of the administrative building (information desk area).
According to GINA, Samaroo said that the upgrade of the facility is being conducted within the GPHC’s master plan and the national development strategy.
Meanwhile, the first phase of construction work is expected to be completed within 18 months and the project is being executed by R. Bassoo Contracting Firm.
Management of the GPHC is seeking to integrate and consolidate in-patient services which are currently dispersed at the institution.
The facility is being constructed to accommodate approximately 300 in-patients and upon completion of the first phase, surgical patients will be transferred to the surgical ward of the upgraded facility.
Prior to the construction of the facility, in 2007 through an Inter-American Development Bank Funded (IDB) project, GPHC had embarked on a computerization project with the aim of improving the maintenance and management systems at the institution, GINA added.
