BRADES – The Department for International Development says the completion of the business case to fund a new hospital for the island is dependent on the government’s choice of a greenfield site to build it.
According to local DfID representative Martin Dawson, completing the case within short hinges on this decision.
Discover Montserrat has learned that two options for constructing the new hospital were the field across from the Government Headquarters and a location in Little Bay.
Since the reconstruction element of the Hospital and Health Improvement Project was halted, a technical team compromising Public Works, Health and DfID have been looking at new locations.
Building at Brades would mean an increase in traffic as it will be in the same location as government headquarters, the police and fire stations as well as other commercial offices.
While some government leaders prefer the Little Bay option, it would mean a significant investment in cutting a new road through Drummonds to service a more direct route for the island’s larger communities.
Montserrat lost 30 million dollars when the infrastructural portion of the project was halted late last year by the new government. Only the soft side which included emergency care, elderly care, NCD prevention, a functional review and health financing continues.
Dawson has said while health finance reform was important it was not the issue which would cause further delay in a new hospital for Montserrat.
The Hon. Minister of Health Delmaude Ryan has stated that the government wants a hospital that make provisions for the current and future health care needs of Montserrat.
Since the start of the volcanic crisis, the Glendon Hospital has been operating from its current location in St. John’s which was once a primary school. While it has seen additions over the years, previous governments began the process for a new business case to improve and modernise the hospital.
