The Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital will soon receive significant upgrades that reflect the quality and type of service offered by the Territory's Health Services Association. Photo: VINO/File

Hon Vincent O. Wheatley, Minister of Health and Social Development (R9), outlined ambitious plans for 2025 budget allocations aimed at addressing critical health and social development issues, particularly through significant infrastructure upgrades. Photo: YouTube

This is according to Honourable Vincent O. Wheatley, Minister of Health and Social Development (R9), who in his contribution to the budget debate during the Continuation of the Twenty-First Sitting of the First Session of the Fifth House of Assembly (HoA) on December 19, 2024.

Hon Wheatley outlined ambitious plans for 2025 budget allocations aimed at addressing critical health and social development issues, particularly through significant infrastructure upgrades.

Speaking on the state of the healthcare system, Hon Wheatley acknowledged there are challenges but remained resolute in his commitment to improvement them affirming, “We're going to facilitate repair and upgrade of key health and social infrastructure, such as the Dr. D. Orlando Smith Hospital, community centres, and social units. These things will continue."

Key infrastructure upgrades

The Minister specifically highlighted projects at the Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital and pointed to the urgency of repairs to ensure the uninterrupted resumption of essential medical services.

"We're going to do repairs to the Dr. Orlando Smith Hospital's roof; a lot of services cannot happen because the roofs are leaking, and different things have to happen so you can offer the much-needed services,” Hon Wheatley explained.

Additionally, Hon Wheatley disclosed plans to upgrade the hospital's lobby and install a new sign.

"We want to give that building the dignity it deserves. It must look like success because we're going to make it successful. It should look like healing. It should look like wellness. It should look like bringing joy to the people,” he added.

Power supply modernisation

Meanwhile, enhancements to the hospital's power systems were another area Hon Wheatley brought up noting, "We want to connect the main generator in our hospital to the old sections of the hospital. Right now, it runs on two systems. You have the general power in the big building and generators in the old building, including dialysis. These are very old generators that at times give a lot of trouble; we figured the best thing to do is to connect the whole building to the main power supply. We keep the generators as backup.”

Conceding that some past promises had been delayed, such as rectifying the aged old problem of the incinerator, Hon Wheatley used his allotted time in the debate to urge patience and optimism among the citizenry in the Territory saying, “I know we promised this before, but we cannot give up. We are supposed to [be able to] incinerate, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to continue."