Women’s Hospital to be merged into EWMSC

The Mount Hope Women’s Hospital is to be integrated into the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) hich would be renovated at a cost of $35 million in order to house a new, modern mother and child facility. Health Minister John Rahael made this announcement at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall yesterday. The existing Mount Hope Women’s Hospital would be closed as a consequence. It is expected to be rehoused in EWMSC by the first quarter of next year. Renovations on EWMSC would begin “within a month’s time,” the Minister said.

The Mount Hope Women’s Hospital currently performs approximately 500 deliveries each month and provides prenatal, postnatal and neonatal care, in addition to serving as a teaching hospital. Rahael said the building, which was constructed in 1970, required extensive renovation and equipment upgrade. But such works could not be done while the building was functioning as a hospital. Hence the need to relocate to the EWMSC, which, he stressed, had adequate space and services to accommodate a modern mother and child unit. He said an important component of the modernisation of Mount Hope would be its integration with the EWMSC and the subsequent training and re-training of staff.

He said among the advantages of integration were:
a) the introduction of a modern system for delivery
b) the establishment of birthing rooms in which the father could be part of the birthing process
c) the location of the maternity unit adjacent to the paediatric unit
d) the increase in the number of delivery rooms and
e) better care and quality management.