Recommissioning of upgraded Leonora Smart Hospital on Tuesday

An upgraded Leonora Cottage Hospital, scheduled to be recommissioned on Tuesday, August 9, will see residents of Leonora and surrounding communities being able to benefit from the services.

It was revealed that the smart hospital was among five hospitals slated for an upgrade through the Smart Health Care Facilities in the Caribbean Project, a collaboration between the Guyana Government and the United Kingdom (UK).

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony disclosed that the UK Government has allocated US $900 to the project, while Guyana invested approximately $15M for additional works. President Irfaan Ali will recommission the facility.

“At Leonora, the basic services, you will have in-patient, outpatient clinics you will have an accident and emergency, a small one, the in-patient services that we will have there will be more than a lot of the maternity cases. So, if a woman comes there to give birth there will be a labour room there would be a place where antenatal services, post-natal services, so that’s predominantly what would be there,” Dr. Anthony said.

It was noted that the hospital will have three doctors along with other staff. The ministry will also add more in-patient facilities at the hospital.

“We have also improved the pharmacy area and some other sections of the hospital, so generally I think these upgrades would allow us to so more things that we were doing previously and to do it more efficiently.”

It was disclosed that the objective of the Smart Health Care Facilities in the Caribbean Project is to enhance the protection of health facilities from disasters and climate change, providing safer, resilient and greener health facilities capable of delivering care in disasters, generating operational savings with enhanced energy efficiency and reducing disaster losses in the Caribbean.

Further, the Leonora Cottage Hospital and four other health facilities in Paramakatoi, Lethem, Diamond, and Mabaruma are all part of the project.

“These were five facilities that we have looked at to make them more climate resilient, meaning that they shouldn’t be flooded they should have better flow within the hospital itself, where it’s possible instead of using power from the grid, that we would be using solar and that that water from rainfall that we can convert that and use it within the facility itself, so with these modifications in mind we have redesigned these hospitals,” Dr. Anthony said.

Additionally, the upgrades to the Lethem and Diamond hospitals have already been completed, while Mabaruma Hospital will be recommissioned later this month, and Paramakatoi in September.