President Richards visits Scarborough Hospital site

While on an official tour of the sister isle recently, His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards, accompanied by his wife, Dr Jean Richards, paid the staff of contractor NH International (Caribbean) Limited a visit to the 25-acre new Scarborough Hospital construction site. A new hospital is underway, with the commencement of work on March 18. By the time of the President’s visit, NH International (Caribbean) Limited had already mobilised and commenced excavation, site clearance works and foundations. According to James Duffy, Project Manager for NH International (Caribbean) Limited, “On this project there are approximately 30,000 cubic metres of material to excavate and replace, a point His Excellency found particularly interesting because he enquired into the physical characteristics of the soil and rock being removed.”

President Richards was given an outline of the sequence of construction works, which when completed, will consist of 22 single-storey buildings and 4 two-storey buildings. A 100-bed facility, the finished complex will include a state-of-the-art maternity building, a paediatric (children’s) building, adult acute surgical, mental health wing and medical buildings, an operating theatre, outpatient treatment building, medical records, radiology, pharmacy and a laboratory. Various ancillary and support buildings also form part of the project, including a heliport for emergency situations. Project Manager James Duffy of NH International (Caribbean) Limited described the experience as, “What a day! We were preparing for a site meeting and the next thing we knew, police outriders arrived on site at the head of a motorcade. There was a knock on the door and we were advised that the President had arrived. “You see, I’m just a humble builder, a career civil engineer, a veteran of many projects, but it is a rare honour indeed for me to be presented to a Head of State. I shall never forget it.” The new Scarborough Hospital is due to be completed in 2005.