Georgetown : Members of the media were taken on a tour of the Materials Management Unit at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, last evening along with the Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran.
According to Minister Ramsaran, the warehouse is meeting international standards, and noted that it may be the largest of its kind in the Caribbean. The new facility, which is slated to be commissioned soon, is electronically managed and has all the prerequisites including controlled temperature and fire response mechanisms such as smoke detectors and sprinklers.
Additionally, there is the correct flow/traffic of how goods are taken in, checked for quality and storage. The Minister explained that the principle is to have minimal storage time in distribution of the drugs to the health facilities.
The new bond is 26,691 feet of active storage and consists of modern racks and refrigeration applications which cater for products such as vaccines and insulin. Fork lifts are used to remove items stored on the higher levels of the racks.
With regards to funding, Minister Ramsaran noted that the realisation of the bond is due to contributions by donor agencies which gave a total of about $375M coupled with the Government of Guyana’s contribution of $120M.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has accused Government of a secret $90M storage fee for drugs paid to Guyana New Pharmaceutical (GPC) while the New GPC publicly stated that the company provided free storage.
This matter is before Parliament’s special committee for investigation.
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