The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

CONSTRUCTION on the new hospital for Grand Bahama is on target for groundbreaking, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville announced yesterday.

He told parliamentarians that his ministry’s architects, health planners and engineers have completed the first phase of the hospital’s design, adding a request for proposals to award contracts for the building phase will be out this month.

“During the 2021-2022 budget debate, I spoke specifically to the two IDB loan facilities available to my ministry, one for the fight against COVID-19 and the other for infrastructural, medical IT and emergency medical services upgrades at our clinics,” Dr Darville told the House of Assembly.

“Coupled with these loans, my ministry is negotiating additional bank funding to support the construction of two state-of-the-art hospitals as outlined in our Blueprint for Change. Today, I am pleased to report that by way of funding from the World Bank the construction of the new state of the art hospital for Grand Bahama is on target for groundbreaking.”

A new hospital is desperately needed in Grand Bahama, as the Rand Memorial Hospital sustained significant damage during Hurricane Dorian in September 2019.

Yesterday, Dr Darville told parliamentarians that the government is dealing with structural issues at the Rand and revealed that renovations at major clinics on Grand Bahama and Grand Cay are being carried out.

He confirmed the completion of foundation work for the installation of modular units to support the Rand’s Accident and Emergency Department to allow for additional bed space, thus solving the “vexing problem” of patients being triaged on the hospital’s porches.

He also noted that the modular units are hurricane resistant and added that they should be erected very shortly.

With respect to the morgue at the Rand, Dr Darville said renovations there will continue.

“We also have renovations ongoing at our radiology department to put in the mammogram machines that were not in place for pretty much the entire pandemic. The scope of the work is completed, and the construction is on the way and we should have that in place in a few months.”

Plans also remain underway for the construction of nine new clinics in the islands, a mini hospital in Eleuthera and the renovations for 17 additional clinics, Dr Darville said yesterday, adding that those plans are progressing well.

“Mr Deputy, with the exception of the Flamingo Garden clinic and the Fleming Street clinic, all clinics in New Providence are under active renovation and in a few months, the second phase of the renovation at the South Beach Clinic will be awarded in two or three weeks,” he said.

“We are going to bring that facility into a full urgent care facility. We will operate that facility from morning to midnight and we will take some of the stress that is currently experiencing at the Accident and Emergency at the Princess Margaret Hospital and we will ensure that the South Beach Clinic takes some of that load.”