EDITORIAL: A new hospital?

IN May of this year, Minister of Health John Boyce was quoted as saying that a new hospital was still in Government’s plan.

 

According to reports at the time, he revealed that health officials had visited the newest site under consideration for the new facility, which would likely include a permanent home for the ambulance service. While he did not disclose the location, he however suggested that “a final strategic position in respect to the location of a new hospital and all the facilities associated with a new hospital” was needed.

 

Fast forward to six months or so later and we are now hearing that there is no need for a new public hospital in Barbados. Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, Sir Henry Fraser, has suggested that our present hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which was built in 1964, is built to last over 100 years. He has proffered several other reasons why Barbados does not need a new hospital and at the top of that list is the fact that the country can’t afford it at this time. He has further suggested that the current facility has not been properly maintained over the past five decades.

 

Without a doubt, we can be sure that a fresh debate will soon ensue on whether or not the country really needs a new hospital. While the focus at present is on the outcome of the United States presidential election of 2016, we can surmise that after a few days, when the dust settles, Barbadians will be looking for a new topic to discuss and this may very well be one of them.

 

It certainly seems that the Government is bent on having a new hospital. Minister Boyce is not the only one who has spoken of the need for a new public health-care facility. Back in 2011, the then Minister of Health Donville Inniss was quoted as saying that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) would be replaced with a new hospital in the near future.

 

According to an article by the Barbados Government Information Service, Inniss explained then that Cabinet had agreed that a new general hospital would be constructed on the Greenfields, St. Michael site and when completed, would replace the QEH. He added that a new 600-bed facility would cost in the region of $800 million for the design phase and the technological factors.

 

“He made it clear that financing for the project would be a joint public/private sector initiative and international funding would be sourced and he added that the hospital would be constructed on enough acreage to ensure it would be both aesthetically pleasing and therapeutic, promising that it would serve the people of Barbados,” GIS reported.

 

“The health minister disclosed that the proposed new hospital would be one of the largest physical development projects, perhaps in the last decade and would have room for expansion. (He) conceded that ‘it had to be done’. He noted that currently, some $195 million was being spent annually to keep the QEH running and identified inadequate electricity and poor maintenance as issues that had been plaguing the plant,” the report added at the time.

 

Given our financial challenges and space limitations, perhaps the time has come for us to have a real, serious discussion on this matter at the national level. Let us hear from Government what their full plans are for the new hospital and how they plan to finance it, and let us hear the challenges that can likely prevent us from making this vision a reality. Then let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.