A group of Montserratians in the United States is developing an ambitious healthcare initiative that could bring rotating specialist clinics, advanced medical services, professional training and research opportunities to the island.
The Emerald Healthcare Group Medical Initiative forms part of the wider Montserrat Emerald Isle Genesis Project being promoted by Friends of Montserrat Care. Montserratian professionals involved in the discussions include cardiologist Dr Icilma Fergus-Rowe, nurse Iris Lake and entrepreneur and philanthropist Victor Lewis.
The initiative is expected to be introduced to the wider diaspora during an online event on Sunday, September 20. Dr Arianna Silcott-Lo and Dr Fergus-Rowe will present the healthcare vision, in conversation with Jeevan Robinson in Canada, Nerissa Golden in the United Kingdom and James White Jr in Montserrat.
While the long-term plans are substantial, the organisers say the first step will be the establishment of a specialist clinic in Salem, provisionally targeted to begin operations in February 2027.
Dr Silcott-Lo, a healthcare professional based in Miami with approximately 20 years’ experience, said the clinic would host medical teams offering services on a rotational basis.
The proposed specialties include obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, orthopaedics, endocrinology, nephrology, haematology and oncology, ophthalmology, dermatology, dentistry, internal medicine and cardiology.
Dr Fergus-Rowe, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, is expected to lead the cardiology component. She has been conducting specialist visits to her homeland since 2011.
According to Dr Silcott-Lo, the teams would travel to Montserrat on a rotating schedule, with the clinic equipped to provide the resources needed for the visiting practitioners.
“Phase one is gonna be our clinic that we’re trying to activate around the February 2027 deadline,” she said.
The clinic is intended to be the starting point for a much larger development. The group’s long-term vision is an academic medical centre providing specialist care, medical training and research facilities. It would serve residents of Montserrat while seeking to attract patients from neighbouring Caribbean islands and, eventually, international medical tourists.
“Our academic medical centre is for the Montserrat people, but as an island culture, the academic medical centre is to help Montserrat lead healthcare in the region,” Dr Silcott-Lo said.
The organisers envisage the centre eventually becoming a full-service hospital supported by separate facilities for paediatrics and medical research. Their plans also include medevac services, sports medicine and links with a proposed residential community for people aged 55 and over.
The medical centre is one of three areas being advanced through the Genesis Project. The others are the Emerald Isle Golden Year Resort, focused on accommodation and services for older adults, and the Creative Campus Eco Institution, which has an education and youth-development focus.
Under the healthcare component, young Montserratians could be introduced to emerging areas including robotic surgery, biomedical laboratories and other medical technologies. The academic centre would also support training for healthcare professionals already working on the island.
For Lake, a nurse based in the United States, the training component could help reduce the need to send Montserratian nurses overseas for some forms of professional development.
“To have it right there on island available, high-tech, state of the art, no need to travel to London or to the UK to get this training,” she said during a planning discussion.
However, significant questions remain about the financing, regulatory approvals, land arrangements, staffing and timeframe for a development of this scale. The organisers said fundraising will be central to moving the first phase forward, with a launch event planned for Manhattan in November.
Dr Fergus-Rowe said the team has already undertaken research and preliminary work, but acknowledged that raising the required capital will be one of its immediate priorities.
“There’s been a lot of research and a lot of hard work and a lot of input that has already been done to kind of start the framework,” she said.
The group also proposes that its private facility would complement, rather than compete with, Montserrat’s public hospital. Its organisers have discussed a public-private partnership under which patients could be referred for specialist services unavailable through the public system. No formal agreement with the Government of Montserrat was announced during the discussion.
Dr Fergus-Rowe said visiting specialists have already demonstrated the potential for more advanced care to be delivered locally. She noted that Montserrat currently lacks some cardiac diagnostic and treatment services, requiring patients to travel overseas.
“The vision is that this facility will have all of that and then some,” she said.
The longer-term concept extends beyond healthcare delivery. Organisers believe a specialist medical centre could create employment, attract investment and research funding, encourage members of the diaspora to return and establish Montserrat as a regional destination for treatment and recovery.
It is a bold proposal for a small island, something the people leading it readily acknowledge. Their immediate test will be whether they can convert the diaspora’s professional expertise, relationships and goodwill into the financing and institutional partnerships necessary to open the first clinic.
Friends of Montserrat Care will host its Diaspora Online Introduction Event on Sunday, September 20 at 2 p.m. Eastern time and 7 p.m. GMT via Zoom. Registration details are available at friendsofmontserratcare.org.
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