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Contact:
Chris Satney
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Proposed National Hospital |
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - Construction of a National Hospital for St.
Lucia is set to commence in the first quarter of 2006 following the completion
of the design of the new facility. The design was presented to the Cabinet of
Ministers and other government officials on Tuesday June 14th 2005.
The design of the state of the art national hospital comes after almost 2 years
of consultation with a wide cross section of persons with interest in the
hospital. The new hospital when completed will boast a state of the art accident
and emergency department - one of 33 subdivisions of the facility. The new
institution will also comprise obstetric suites which will include 31 anti and
post natal beds, five delivery beds and a special care baby unit. It will also
include a 21 bed paediatric unit, three acute general wards equipped with 65
beds and eight dialysis chairs.
The facility will also be equipped with four operating theatres two general,
one day-surgery and one obstetric. The structure of the new hospital will be
built to withstand the forces of hurricane and earthquake and will be built to
accommodate future expansion.
The new hospital design was prepared by Sir Frederick Snow and Partners of the
United Kindgom. Managing Director Mr. Phillip Martin, says construction of the
new national hospital could begin as soon as January of next year.
Were looking at two to two and a half years of construction, so during this
period the two and a half to three years we should be preparing ourselves to
operate and manage the hospital. It is a good period, a good time to train
people to get an understanding of hospital they are going to manage and to
prepare for it and get it going, the head of the design team said.
Minister for Health, Family Affairs and Gender Relations Hon Damian Greaves says
the release of the designs is an indication that Saint Lucia is moving closer to
improving the delivery of health care.
If we need to modernize our health services and our hospital care, we would be
compromised by the building at Victoria hospital. We have developed an alliance
with the French authorities and with the Laminar Hospital. In fact the Laminar
Hospital is about 80% complete and we are following closely on the heels of that
hospital, which will in fact be the same size with the hospital we are building
in St. Lucia, the minister said.
With the completion of designs, the architects will now prepare working
drawings. That phase which is expected to last three to four months will be
followed by the preparation of tender documents and the tendering process for
the construction of the hospital which will also take three to four months to
complete. The new National Hospital is expected to be ready before the end of
2009.
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