Suddie hospital plans to commission $40M operating theatre by mid-year

Region Two Regional Health Officer, Dr. Ranjeev Singh says the Region plans to fully operationalise its $40.9 million operating theatre at the Suddie Public Hospital by the middle of the year.  He said funds to ensure that this project comes to fruition would be allocated in the 2021 budget.

Dr. Singh told the Department of Public Information that while the theatre has been completed, only minor surgery can be conducted as it has not yet been fully furnished. He said he is hopeful that this would soon be rectified as the delayed works mean that patients are referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), which incurs an additional financial burden on them.

“We want to have that theatre up and running so that we can not only reduce our refers to Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), we can do some major surgery here as well. That is what I’m hoping to achieve, or accomplish. By the end of this half of the year, we can start having surgeries done here that was not done before.”

Dr. Singh also said the Region would advocate for this development, despite the COVID-19 environment, as the hospital also serves Wakenaam Island and even Moruca, Barima-Waini (Region One).

In 2018, the then ANPU+AFC Government signed a $40.9 million contract with Rakesh Samaroo of Builders Hardware to establish the state-of-the-art operating theatre, following a request from the regional administration.

The Suddie Public Hospital is the largest hospital within the Region. The Region also procured a dental chair and Electrocardiograph machine (EKG) among other equipment, to increase the level of service offered by the hospital. Funds for this were sourced from the 2020 Emergency Budget.

Since attaining his position, Dr. Singh said he has been able to address the Region’s drug shortage, which is one of their biggest achievements. He said the medicine stock is monitored to ensure that a shortage does not recur.

“When I say shortage of drugs, it is not any kind of drug but critical drugs, much needed. I can safely say that the health sector in this region does not have a drug shortage. If we do, it is very little and they are not the chronic disease neither the critical drugs,” he said. The RHO added that the administration hopes to close other gaps in the Region’s health sector to improve the delivery of healthcare services.