‘What Happened to Guyana’s British-Backed Hospital?’: VAMED Calls Out Unpaid Works, Lapsed Loans, and Arbitration as King Charles Arrives

By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News |

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — As His Majesty King Charles III arrived in Georgetown to celebrate expanding British-Guyanese bilateral trade and commercial partnerships, international healthcare developer VAMED Engineering GmbH issued a statement raising questions over the fate of the €160 million, British-backed Georgetown Maternal and Paediatric Hospital.

The project at Ogle, East Coast Demerara, was launched in 2022 under an agreement supported by UK Export Finance (UKEF). It was designed to provide modern maternal and child healthcare, but the facility remains unfinished. The contract has ended in termination and international arbitration, leaving healthcare promises unfulfilled.

In its statement, VAMED claimed there is considerably more to the dispute than has been shared publicly. The company stated that certified construction work was left unpaid by the Ministry of Health, despite British financing arrangements being in place.

Unpaid Certificates and Self-Financed Works

According to VAMED, the dispute developed despite certified progress from the government’s appointed supervising team:

• Certified Works Stalled: VAMED noted that VIKAB Engineering Consultants, the government-appointed contract engineer, repeatedly issued Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs) certifying completed construction works. However, the Ministry of Health did not authorize or disburse the payments.
• Grace Period Financing: The company pointed out that the project was still within its loan repayment grace period, meaning the Government of Guyana had not yet been required to begin servicing or repaying the principal on the loan.
• Self-Financed Construction: VAMED stated that rather than walking off the site, it continued to self-finance construction from its corporate resources for over a year. Senior corporate executives made multiple trips to Georgetown to present mitigation options to keep the project moving forward.

“Certified construction work went unpaid—even though British-backed financing was in place… For more than a year, we continued financing construction from our own resources despite prolonged nonpayment. Senior executives repeatedly travelled to Guyana and proposed solutions to keep the hospital project alive.” — VAMED Engineering Statement

Lapsed Financing and Contract Termination

VAMED stated that the issue escalated when the core financial architecture was allowed to dissolve:

• Expired UKEF Agreement: The company stated that in November 2025, the government allowed the underlying loan financing agreement to lapse without renewing it or notifying VAMED, even while negotiations to resolve the impasse were ongoing.
• Contractor Termination: Rather than regularizing the certified payments and updating the financing terms, the administration terminated the contractor.
• International Arbitration: The matter has since moved to international arbitration proceedings, halting progress on the Ogle facility as well as works associated with the New Amsterdam Hospital modernization.

“In November 2025, the government allowed the loan agreement to lapse without renewing it or informing VAMED, even as we continued working to resolve the impasse… Why would a government celebrate a major British-backed hospital investment, fail to process payments certified by its own engineer, allow the financing agreement to expire, and ultimately terminate the contractor trying to complete the project?”

Awkward Questions During the Royal Visit

The company suggested the controversy presents awkward questions as the royal tour focuses on bilateral economic expansion:

• Infrastructure Patterns: VAMED questioned whether a pattern is developing where high-profile national infrastructure projects are announced with fanfare, only to collapse into contract cancellations, disputes, and arbitration.
• Track Record in Healthcare: VAMED pointed to its global background as a healthcare developer with more than 1,000 completed hospital projects worldwide and a partnership with UK Export Finance dating back to 2018.

As King Charles III tours Georgetown to highlight bilateral partnerships, VAMED’s statement directs attention toward the stalled facility at Ogle, asking why a British-backed specialty hospital remains incomplete.