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  • 2 years ago
A separate budget for maintaining the new Port of Spain Central Block has already been sent to the Ministry of Health by the North West Regional Health Authority.


This, as the facility continues on target to be completed and commissioned in 2025.


Alicia Boucher has more in this report.
Transcript
00:00 The decommissioning of the central block of the Port of Spain General Hospital,
00:03 which occurred after the 2018 earthquake, continues to have a serious impact on the hospital.
00:09 So says Chief Executive Officer of the Northwest Regional Health Authority, Major Anthony Blake,
00:15 has bed capacity has gone from 574 to 257, inclusive of the maternity ward,
00:23 despite efforts to increase capacity.
00:26 Going from 574 beds to less than half of that has had a serious impact on our ability to provide
00:34 the level of service that we need.
00:37 And this is why the construction of the new central block is something
00:41 stakeholders are highly looking forward to.
00:43 We now will speak very shortly about the construction process,
00:46 the progress of the construction.
00:48 And this project was conceptualized in December 2019.
00:53 The project actually started in terms of groundbreaking in June 2022,
00:57 and the estimated completion is 2025.
01:00 And we expect to commission and be in that building, operating it in 2025.
01:06 Staffing, adequate maintenance, proper ICT equipment through proper procurement,
01:11 retooling and training present staff are some of the areas the NWRHA says it is focusing on
01:18 for the new building, which would feature a teaching hospital along with the expansion
01:23 of other services.
01:24 Additional human resources would also be needed,
01:28 and NWRHA Chairman Lisa Agard states that it is being looked at.
01:32 We have prepared a separate budget to cover all of the additional human resources we require,
01:42 as well as the maintenance of all of the equipment, etc.
01:45 And we have submitted a separate budget to the Ministry of Health,
01:51 so that when the central block comes online in 2025,
01:57 we remain hopeful that a substantial part of the budget that we have submitted for that facility
02:05 will in fact get approved.
02:10 In terms of the NWRHA's financials for the years 2022 and 2023,
02:16 it is stated that there was a 28% drop in capital expenditure allocation.
02:22 In 2022, 100% of what was received was spent, and in 2023, only 69% was spent.
02:30 These spends exclude anything to do with the central block.
02:34 Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
02:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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