UK provides funds to improve Caribbean health facilities
WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says an estimated 50 healthcare facilities in seven Caribbean countries are being improved and retrofitted as part of the SMART Health Care Facilities project.
The US$38.3 million project is being supported by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (UK aid).
PAHO said its Health Emergencies Department, in partnership with the Ministries of Health, is assessing some 600 health centres, hospitals and similar facilities in Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Jamaica, Guyana and Belize.
The selection of the facilities and the retrofitting works are being guided by a team of regional experts under the supervision of Regional Advisor and Project Manager Dr Dana van Alphen, using the SMART Toolkit developed by PAHO to assess structural, non-structural, functional and environmentally sound elements.
In Dominica, PAHO said four health facilities have been selected to undergo major improvements designed to make them disaster resilient and environmentally friendly.
“I am pleased that we have completed the necessary data analysis to determine the priority facilities that will undergo extensive retrofitting to make them smart, that is to say, safer and greener,” said Dr Godfrey Xuereb, PAHO Representative for the Eastern Caribbean.
PAHO said Princess Alice Hospital in Grenada has been identified as the showcase facility to be retrofitted.
Four other health facilities have also been approved by the Ministry of Health for retrofitting, PAHO said, noting that over the past 18 months all 38 health care facilities on Grenada and Carriacou were assessed using the SMART Toolkit.
In St Lucia, PAHO said 16 health facilities will undergo various degrees of improvements to make them disaster resilient and environmentally sound, “after a thorough period of data collection and analysis of the 34 health facilities”.
It said eight “priority health facilities” have been approved for retrofitting in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
