Wakenaam Hospital to undergo major rehabilitation

Residents of Wakenaam Island, Region Three, will soon be provided with an advanced medical facility, as the Wakenaam Cottage Hospital will undergo major rehabilitation works.

With rehabilitation, residents can expect a more comfortable environment, along with adequate supplies to enhance service delivery.

The hospital will also see the presence of additional health workers, which will majorly improve its efficiency.

Rehabilitation works will commence following the tendering process.

As such, the Ministry of Health has since opened bids at the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) for the project.

As per normal, bidding will be conducted through the National Competitive Bidding procedure, specified in the Procurement Act 2003.

Persons can uplift the bidding documents at the Accounts Department of

Health ministry launches national mental health website

the Ministry of Health compound, at Brickdam, Georgetown, between Monday to Thursday from 09:00hrs to 16:30hrs, and on Friday from 09:00hrs to 15:30hrs.

Bids are required to be submitted at the NPTAB at lot 49 Main and Urquhart Streets, Georgetown, no later than Tuesday, June 13, 2023.

The rehabilitation and construction of hospitals and health facilities are just one of the many ways in which the government is modernising the health sector.

Gov’t approves Local Content Annual Plans for ExxonMobil, Halliburton, TechnipFMC, Saipem and Baker Hughes

Inkeeping with provisions set out under the Local Content Act, the Ministry of Natural Resources, on Monday approved the Local Content Annual Plans of five major oil companies operating in Guyana. These plans were approved for the reporting year, 2023.

At the simple ceremony, held in the ministry’s boardroom, Minister of Natural Resources Hon. Vickram Bharrat M.P. was joined by key representatives of the signing companies — President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Mr. Alistair Routledge; Area Director for Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad of TechnipFMC, Mr. Nicolas Siccard; Country Lead of Halliburton Guyana, Mr. Vahman Jurai; Country Manager of Bakers Hughes Guyana Mr. Jon Charles Rhodes and the Country Manager of Saipem Guyana, Mr. Gianluigi Della Rosa. The team comprised, too, the Director of the Local Content Secretariat, Dr. Martin Pertab, and the ministry’s Legal Officer, Mr. Michael Munroe.

As stated in the Local Content Act, contractors, sub-contractors and licensees operating in Guyana’s petroleum sector must submit a Local Content Annual Plan, outlining in detail their procurement, employment and capacity development plans for the reporting year. Minister Bharrat noted that these plans reaffirm the Government of Guyana’s goal of ensuring that companies invest heavily in the development of local content. With an enhanced value chain, the minister stated that Guyanese suppliers are given a fair opportunity to not only tap directly into the nation’s burgeoning petroleum sector, but to also build, strengthen and expand their business’ capacity and services.

He went on to say, “We are pleased to see the commitment of these companies to local content, and we look forward to working with them to ensure that the goals of the Local Content Act are achieved. This is a crucial step towards building a sustainable oil and gas industry that benefits all Guyanese.”

Meanwhile, Halliburton’s Country Lead commented that the company is proud of its commitment to local talent and vendor development in Guyana. He added, “Through the Secretariat’s guidance and our management team’s dedication, our expectation is to continue not just meeting, but exceeding, our local content and sustainable development targets.”

Technip’s TechnipFMC’s Area Director echoed similar sentiments. “Growing local content is not an obligation, suicide. That’s really the ideal to aspire for,” Dr Anthony noted.

TheMinistry of Health-Mental Health Unit launched its mental health website, which now serves as a platform for Guyanese to access basic information about mental illness and other related ailments. The website will also provide those persons with private and secure mental health support.

During the launching ceremony at the Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC), Quamina Street, Georgetown, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony stated that this is a project that President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali is personally involved in, as he recognises the importance of mental health in the country.

The comprehensive Suicide Prevention Act 2022 is one of numerous legal changes in the health sector that will improve service delivery to reduce suicide, as part of the government’s nationwide commitment to address mental health. The act aims to offer countermeasures to the high rate of suicides.

Minister Anthony said the website now complements a section of the Act. “We will get people coming in and people interacting. As the calls come in and as we work on this, we will see how to change it to make sure that we’re constantly very responsive.” only facilities that provided mental health services. this is how we do things from a TechnipFMC standpoint. Since the commencement of our activities in Guyana in 2017, we have indeed endeavoured to gradually develop our local content: through developing a Guyanese workforce… through growing a pool of passionate local subcontractors, and through investing into TechnipFMC’s very own support asset in Guyana – our worldclass service base.

Dr Anthony noted that expert psychiatric services are now available in Regions Two, Three, Five, Six, and along the East Bank of Demerara. He added that the Mental Health Unit is training primary healthcare physicians on this methodology to provide counselling sessions relating to mental illnesses.

The combination of those three pillars enabled the complete repatriation of our activities in the country at the end of 2021, and has been the foundation on which we built our successes today.”

Importantly too, the five companies were also awarded their Certificates of Compliance from the Local Content Secretariat.

These certificates confirm that the respective companies have delivered on commitments and targets set out in their annual plans. Since the establishment of the local content legislation, this will be the first occasion on which these Certificates of Compliance have been issued. The secretariat is currently in the process of awarding certificates to other companies, as it makes good on its legislative commitment of ensuring that the spirit of local content in Guyana is upheld.

The government also acknowledged that one of the challenges that continue to plague the nation in relation to mental health is the number of persons committing suicide.

“We want to change that. We want to make sure that we are able to reduce those numbers and if we can get to a place where nobody in the country is going to commit

Survivors of suicide, people who are contemplating suicide, and people who have lost loved ones to suicide will all receive support as well as benefit from programmes aimed at preventing self-destruction.

In the past, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the National Psychiatric Hospital in Canje, Region Six were the

“The hope is that all of our primary healthcare centres would have people who are skilled in working with the persons who would have mental health vulnerabilities. So, this is a work in progress. We have trained a number of doctors but we still have a lot more people to train. This is something we will continue to do,” the health minister asserted.

It was developed by the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the President Youth Advisory Council (PYAC).

The website is now live and can be accessed at https://mentalhealth.gov.gy/