The new hospital that the government has borrowed US$125 million to build at Arnos Vale will have fewer beds but more space than the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) in Kingstown.
The acute care hospital will have 134 beds, as opposed to 213 beds at MCMH, Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves told Parliament this month as he asked lawmakers to authorise the borrowing of the loans.
“It occupies 50% more space than the Milton Cato Hospital. So the Milton Cato Hospital is pigeonholed on 12,400 square meters. The acute care hospital will be 18,500 square meters, with additional space for further expansion,” the finance minister said.
Parliament approved the borrowing of the loan with bipartisan support although the opposition expressed concern about how the contract for the construction of the hospital had been awarded.
The government had initially secured part financing for the hospital from the World Bank.
However, it asked the World Bank to allow the US$93 million to be diverted to finance the recovery from Hurricane Beryl, having approached Taiwan earlier in the year for a US$125 million loan.
Quoting the World Bank, the finance minister said the new hospital will be able to cope with expected climate change impacts and other natural disasters.
“We’ll focus on investing in the structural and non-structural resilience of the new acute care hospital. Hospital safety and climate resilience will be a fundamental feature, and will incorporate adaptation and mitigation measures in the design, construction and maintenance of the 134-bed hospital,” Gonsalves told Parliament.
He said that based on earlier work by the Pan American Health Organization, the project will incorporate low-carbon and climate-resilient design measures in the construction of the acute care hospital, the PAHO hospital smart hospital guide and the IFC Green Edge buildings.
“The hospital will be designed to withstand a category 5 hurricane with wind speeds of at least 160 miles per hour, with hurricane-safe windows and roofs, etc, and manage other climate-related impacts such as floods and heat waves and volcanic ash,” he said.
Work on the hospital has commenced less than two months after a category 4 hurricane, the first major cyclone to directly impact the country since 1955, devasting the southern Grenadine islands of Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island. Also, it is beginning three years after La Soufriere erupted explosively for the first time since 1979.
Gonsalves said energy efficiency measures aimed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the hospital will include standardisation of building materials, use of renewable resources, energy-saving approaches for lighting, switches and energy-efficient appliances.
He said that minimal use of air conditioning will be pursued with essential ventilation with central, ventilated corridors, and installation of vents and roof vents for air circulation.
He said that since the acute care hospital will offer a wide range of services, the MCMH will specialise in hospital-level maternity and child healthcare services.
“The MCMH bed capacity will be reduced to 79 beds, and the acute care hospital will have 134 beds.”
The finance minister said that both facilities will have acute, intermediate and intensive care units for each of the populations they address, and will offer surgical, emergency and outpatient services in addition to diagnostic and therapeutic support.
“Both the acute care hospital and the MCMH will be under the same legal entity. However, administrative and logistic services will be offered at both facilities and centralised at the acute care hospital in Arnos Vale to optimise resources and attain greater effectiveness.”
The finance minister said that not all of the US$125 million loan will go to the actual construction and equipping of the new hospital.
“… there’s a second component, which the World Bank estimated would cost five and a half million US dollars, called Strengthening Health System Resilience,” Gonsalves said.
He told Parliament that this component will strengthen the capacity and resilience of hospital services.
It will also finance the transition plan, strengthen the governance structures, improve the management information system to strengthen hospital services, including a blend of capital investment and services to support the development of the Health Information Service Action Plan, the procurement of applicable Health Information Services for the acute care hospital, and the interaction and interoperability between the systems that exist in the two locations.
“There’s a third component dealing with project management coordination,” Gonsalves said.
He said the government has to hire healthcare consultants.
“We have to do an overall construction management consultant and create a project coordination team, which we have already done, that includes a lead project manager, an assistant project manager, a project engineer, an architect, an environmental specialist, a social specialist, a procurement specialist, a financial management specialist and a communication specialist in this unit to help drive this facility, this construction and the strengthening of our healthcare sector more broadly,” Gonsalves said.
We have roughly 40 healthcare facilities nation-wide. Many of them need to be upgraded better staffed and equipped. Why not use these funds to do that, which would make community healthcare better. Building a new facility will not improve state healthcare if the systems aren’t improved.
and as usual what about the medical equipment and medications? will the people still have to buy their own medication ,? will the nurses still beg the relatives to leave the unused medications? Will an extra intravenous medication be prescribed and was told to leave it for donation? ar yo really believe all de people dotish foolish eh