New $60M hospital for Point Fortin

Larry Achong or no Larry Achong, the Cabinet seems determined to take care of the people of Point Fortin. Government yesterday agreed to the construction of a brand new state-of-the-art hospital, twice the size of the current antiquated one. Health Minister John Rahael, in making the announcement at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference, stated that the new facility would cost $60 million. It would have the capacity to perform 1,500 to 2,000 same day surgery cases as well as deliver 1,000 babies each year. The 46- bed facility would have an accident and emergency unit, medical surgery, paediatric and maternity unit.

Construction would start at the end of this year and is expected to last 18 months. In explaining the rationale for the decision, Rahael said the existing Point Fortin Hospital was over 55 years old and was not equipped to handle an emergency of any magnitude. The nearest burns unit is located at the General Hospital in San Fernando, he noted. Noting that the original plan was to close the Point Fortin Hospital and replace it with a district health facility, Rahael stated that those plans were revised.  He said Government had hired British health planning consultant Cyril Suite Ltd in July to revisit and assess the need for a hospital in Point Fortin. The Cyril Suite Ltd report recommended the construction of a hospital, the same size of the existing facility at a cost of $35.5 million. However, in September, the South West Regional Health Authority, which was not satisfied with the recommendations of Cyril Suite Ltd sought further advice on the designs for a new hospital.

The need for a new facility for Point Fortin was mentioned by MP Larry Achong during his recent contretemps with the Government. But the evidence indicates that Government has been considering and discussing a health facility for Point Fortin for the past three years. In fact, the 2003/2004 Budget, which was presented in October last year, did provide an allocation for a new health facility in the Point Fortin constituency.