$50m spent - but surgical theatres to stay closed

As of Friday, November 29, 2013

DESPITE spending more than $50 million on the new critical care block, once the new facility at the Princess Margaret Hospital opens the same number of surgical theatres will be in operation.

Yesterday, physicians at PMH said they were worried that the new block would do very little in meeting the needs of the hospital because only three of the six new theatres are slated to be used when it opens. While the official opening was expected last month, it is still unclear when the Critical Care Clock will be fully operational.

Surgeons at PMH were told that the three existing theatres, which have been operating for decades, are to be closed down and sterilised. However there are fears that the exercise will not happen.

Additionally, there is no space allocated for the accident and emergency unit, which handles a high volume of patients each day, as administrative offices have been assigned to most of the space, one doctor said.

The project began in November 2011. It houses 20 private ICU rooms, 18 recovery beds, a central sterile department, new lab facilities and administrative facilities and a new main entrance which is disability friendly.

Thirty-three nurses, accredited by the Royal College of Nursing in the United Kingdom in critical care are expected to work in the new block.

HarryWyckoff 10 years, 4 months ago

ohdrap4 10 years, 4 months ago

the airport in marsh harbour also is not going to open the new govt building in abaco is a mess, they built where there cant be a parking lot (something to do with sinkholes the new hospital cant open i think some stupid people walk on this land

GQ 10 years, 4 months ago

I have been informed the real reason the Airport Terminal at "The Leonard M. Thompson International Airport" in Marsh Harbour Abaco has not been opened is due to the fact that the government has not made payments to FES Construction that are due and they will not surrender the keys until they are paid. Enough of the bull s..t from the government, pay FES and open this building. Further, I am told that when a certain client has guests they are cleared through the new terminal. I have no reason to doubt this and it is a shame and disgrace that other visitors have to put up with the dirty, messy outdated facility while one sits idle.

ThisIsOurs 10 years, 4 months ago

This story is confusing. Why is the new critical care block behind in schedule? Are the existing theaters being shut down because they have 3 news one that can substitute so that when they are cleaned you will have 6 operational? Why is there fear that they will not be scheduled for cleaning? What was the objective of the new building? Was it to duplicate the services of the existing hospital or to extend only some of the services ? All of this is really unclear... The original objective vs the expectation of the physicians could be two separate things but that's another issue...what does "most of the space" mean? how square footage much is allocated to patient care and how much to administrative offices?