The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Saturday broke ground for a new US$78 million hospital, with Health Minister Jimmy Prince saying the current main hospital is no longer fit for purpose.
The Arnos Vale Acute Referral Hospital is named for the community in which it is located, 2.2 miles east of the capital, Kingstown.
It is financed from a US$125 million loan from Taiwan, which the government has said would also help to improve healthcare across the country.
Overseas Engineering and Construction Company, a Taiwanese firm, has been awarded the contract to build the hospital within 32 months. The total floor area of the building is 189,000 square feet or 4.3 acres.
The ground-breaking ceremony took place on the eve of the country’s 45th anniversary of independence from Britain and also heard an address from Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lin Chai-Lung who is in SVG for the celebrations, as part of a wider tour of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prince said the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, in Kingstown, which the new hospital is replacing, is “old” and was not originally designed as a hospital.
“The building has some major defects. It is constantly leaking, and in the worst possible areas,” he said.
He said the hospital has poor security and its location is bad.
“It’s hemmed by a cemetery to the west, Victoria Park and roads. There’s no room for expansion. It’s prone to flooding, and because of the location, there’s a very poor layout, limiting the functionality of the hospital.”
The health minister said hospital service capacity is limited as a result and there’s a narrow service profile and among other things, limited availability for specialist care.
“We can’t expand and we can’t modernise. We had to move, and we had to move to this spot, and here we are breaking ground.”
However, Prince said that the Arnos Vale hospital will not merely be a new building as it will offer expanded healthcare services under a new governance system.
“I’ve spoken to all the officials in the Ministry of Health as to what we are going to do as a result of the expansion of our health services and how is this facility going to improve the services which we have,” Prince said.
“And we have these expanded range of services to provide cardiovascular services, neurological services, neurology, endocrinology, including diabetes, thyroid specialities, orthopaedic rheumatology, rheumatoid arthritis, haematology, including sickle cell diseases, oncology, dental, OBGYN, among others.”
He said the project includes leadership and governance.
“Because we have to change culture. We have to change governance, improvement of leadership and governance structure, health workforce, how we recruit and sustain the workforce that is sufficiently and appropriately skilled, health information that is developing a hospital management information system to ensure data-driven decision-making at the policy, operational and clinical levels.”
Prince said a financing model has to be developed to support the health system. “And that’s a very sensitive issue. It’s something that we have to grapple with.”
The new hospital will be “modern, it will be safe, it will be smart, it will take account of waste management and national hazards.
“In other words, the new hospital will be able to cope with expected climate change impacts and other natural disasters … Hospital safety and climate change resilience will be a fundamental feature of this new facility.
“It will be a green hospital, as far as it is possible. It will be a blend of the need for new health sector infrastructure and system reform.”
Prince said no healthcare system is perfect and the government will continue to address deficiencies in the system “so that the new healthcare dispensation stands on a good foundation.
“Today’s ground-breaking is the continuation of our resolve to improve healthcare to our people.”
The main independence event is a military parade slated for 6 p.m. Sunday local time.
PM Gonsalves and Daniel could had have their shirts ironed and well pressed for the occasion. The pair looks quite raggedy in those clothes. They look like they just left the local rum shop. Shame on you both. I bet your mouths was smelling too.
Now you know for sure that the elections are soon ( most likely in january when most still have something left over to eat to go and vote ) , for some months now he started making the rounds and playing nice santa and telling the others to be see and be heard , the hurricane provide him with money but spoiled some other plans ,the airport prove to be a bust ( he still haven’t talk about the plans to sell it off as yet ) so now he is going for small houses and the hospital that everyone was clambering for all of twenty years and more. now we see it starting , the big question is when will it be fully operational , we do need it , only hope we dont have to import staff ,everyone can get a chance to eat now but dont forget that after 25 you will have to wait for 30 to eat again if we still have control over svg so make your choice ,when you see he with a shovel in he hand you should know the out look is really bad , vincentians are you all collectively going to be fooled by this man his gang and family ,again ?
Want to know if the people will be still given prescription to get their medication regardless of what hour in the night? Will the nurses still will have to buy intravenous fluids to assist their maternal paaients? Will the cleaners will have to buy disinfectant to clean? Will the nurse at midnight have to say boy if yo wat yo son go wake up some pharmacist fo get these medicaion ( a 4yrs asthmatic) will there be enough gloves so that one pair won’t be used on another patient? ON and ON we can go, hope people understands the difference between a building and a hospital.
Ha!