Prime Minister visits rehabilitation works of Lahane’s former Maternity Hospital
Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak, accompanied by the Minister of Health, Odete Maria Freitas Belo, and the Vice Minister of Health, Bonifacio Maucoli dos Reis, visited, this Monday, January 11, 2021, the rehabilitation works of the former maternity hospital Dr. Antonio Carvalho, in Lahane, to have a closer look at the progress of this rehabilitation work.
The rehabilitation of the former maternity hospital is part of the Government’s preparations, in 2020, when Timor-Leste began to face the COVID-19 situation, with the aim of preparing isolation rooms for positive patients with COVID-19.
After visiting the rehabilitation works, the Head of the Government showed his satisfaction with its good quality and asked that the small details still missing, be completed quickly, so that this space can be used soon.
“Today, I come here to visit this place, because the Ministry of Health has promoted its rehabilitation, and I wanted to see the progress of the works. After what I have seen, I can say that I am pleased with the Timorese entrepreneurs, who have carried out this work, but I ask the Ministry of Health to complete, as soon as possible, the small details missing, so that we could use this space soon. Firstly, so that we do not accumulate too many patients in the HNGV, because often space there is not enough (…), so, if we finish this requalification quickly, we can probably use this building as well. But it just not for this function. In the event of an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, we will already have more this space.”, the Head of the Government told the press.
On the same occasion, the Chief of the Executive also asked the Minister of Health and her team to also proceed with the rehabilitation of the former Lahane Hospital, which has not been recovered yet, so that patients with contagious diseases can be transferred from the Nacional Hospital Guido Valadares (HNGV) to Lahane, because HNGV at the moment lacks conditions, namely in terms of space.
The former maternity hospital was fully rehabilitated by Hedge Construction Unipessoal LDA company, in May 2020. This rehabilitation, in the amount of US$ 450,153.32, was carried out under the COVID-19 Fund. At this moment, the physical rehabilitation is already complete, including the parallel oxygen connection to each room, the AC system, and interior electricity installation, completed with lamps. It is now necessary to rehabilitate the outdoor spaces (garden), the electrical connection to the exterior, and the protective wall.
