ARTICLE - RECONSTRUCTION OF HUEH

THE PRIME MINISTER WISHES TO ACCELERATE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE HUEH
(Haiti Libre) -

An important delegation composed of among others: Prime Minister, Dr. Garry Conille, the First Lady, Sophia Martelly, Florence Duperval Guillaume, the Minister of Health, the Ambassador of France in Haiti, Didier Le Bret and some members of directorate of the HUEH went yesterday, Monday to the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH). This visit was part of efforts to encourage a quick start of reconstruction work at the General Hospital.

After this visit, the Prime Minister declared "...there are several interesting things that came out of this visit. We agreed with the Minister of Health to establish a reconstruction agenda, which contains several elements: first, the strengthening and the acceleration of the construction of the peripheral centers to reduce the pressure at the level of the hospital, secondly, start the reconstruction of key services at the hospital, the emergency service for example [...] Thirdly, try to see how we can rapidly accelerate the contracting for an effective reconstruction, so that the hospital can start working normally, as soon as possible.

[...] We took the decision to release the military hospital, which now contains the administration of public health, because it is easier to move an administration. We will use the military hospital as a peripheral center, until we can start the reconstruction [...] What has blocked us for over a year is all the paperwork, all the administrative procedures, as much on our side than that of our partners [...] This is why, one of the first things I did was to unlock the process. The second thing we do, as I said, is to strengthen the peripheral health centers, so that the flow of patients have other places to go to. We are considering several options including, for example, our Brazilian partners, who built four peripheral centers for us, and the strengthening of other centers [...] Of course this will be accompanied by a communication campaign to inform people so that they know which one to go to and for what kind of problems.

I can tell you that a think tank is working to see how we can start the reconstruction with the least impact possible on patients [...] There is more than $52 million that has been committed through the IHRC [...] They come from our French partners and the U.S. [$25 million each], and a contribution from the State. These funds are already available. The process is already underway; however, there are contract awards that are already initiated. So the reflection today was really to see what we can do, to shorten up the process and to begin the reconstruction [...]"

Dr. Jacques Pierre-Pierre, Medical Director of the HUEH, and also the Executive Director of the HUEH had recently confirmed that at present, only the premises which had been severely damaged in the earthquake of January 2010 and which would not likely affect the proper functioning of the hospital, were being demolished, but the reconstruction will not really start before June 2012.

Didier Le Bret, the Ambassador of France accredited to Haiti, took advantage of his visit to reiterate the commitment of France to contribute to efforts designed to make the HUEH a true reference hospital, adding that the French government was ready "to support the strengthening of departmental public hospitals", and that it was the role of the Haitian state to define their national health map.