In a couple of yr, Barbados can have a one-stop, 24-hour, multi-purpose urgent care facility, in consequence of a $12 million investment within the expansion of the Bayview Hospital.
During a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday on the St Paul’s Avenue, St Michael location, officials said the upgraded healthcare facility will serve to enrich the range of medical services on the island.
Bayview Hospital Administrator Jules Reid said the development of the purpose-built three-storey medical centre will end in greater efficiency and speed from a cadre of specialists and medical professionals.
“Bayview Hospital is taking its current 22-bed, inclusive of a two-bed intensive care unit, three operating theatre service, to the following level. We will offer all of Barbados access to a seven-day every week, around-the-clock emergency and accident service complemented by our own ambulance service, radiology, and diagnostic services,” said Reid.
“In creating this vision and plan we took into consideration market research which suggested that a 2023 private urgent care facility should seek to cater to as many as 80 patients a day. We embrace this standard and likewise added to the plan, provision of a 24-hour ambulance, laboratory and radiology departments. So in effect, we’re in search of to supply an upgraded and expanded Bayview Hospital, a one-stop-shop service,” she explained.
She also noted that the radiology department shall be outfitted with a new CT scan, the fifth on island. The power may even host a new operating theatre, designed and outfitted with modern technologies.
Reid said the state-of-the-art facility will help to position Barbados as a destination of selection for medical tourism, and can end in the creation of new job opportunities.
“We’ll due to this fact be hiring additional physicians, nursing staff and other disciplines required in the availability of first-rate medical services. This presents the chance for Barbadians resident at home and abroad to avail themselves to develop into an element of the family here at Bayview and this exciting new initiative,” said Reid.
She gave the reassurance that medical services won’t be suspended in the course of the construction phase and there could be little to no inconvenience. The majority of the development shall be done off site and delivered to the situation for installation.
“It will allow for all current services to proceed throughout the 12-month period of construction,” she assured.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who was accompanied to the groundbreaking ceremony by several of her government ministers, said the investment in a contemporary urgent care medical facility was a vote of confidence within the local economy.
“Above all else, it’s a press release of confidence. It’s a press release of confidence of where this country is regardless of a pandemic and all else that we face. Nobody takes up $12 million and invests in something unless they expect a level of return commensurate to the investment they’re making,” said Mottley.
Mottley thanked Chairman of the Bayview Hospital Peter Harris and his board of directors for the arrogance they’re placing within the local economy and its growth at this stage. This, she said, allows Barbados to enhance the standard of services provided to Barbadians and frontally attack the query of costs given the indisputable fact that scarcity literally increases the associated fee of services within the country.
“This level of confidence is agreeable to the Government particularly within the health sector, because as you’ll hear increasingly more, as we refine Barbados’ opportunities for growth, we imagine medical services and medical tourism is a key platform upon which this country can proceed to earn its way,” she said.
Mottley also indicated that there was the chance for a review of the memorandum of understanding between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Bayview Hospital “to be certain that each institutions, although one public and one private, can work cooperatively in a small island jurisdiction to have the opportunity to access the advantages that pooling may give them by way of procurement not only in pharmaceuticals but additionally supplies and equipment”.
“Barbados is just too small for every institution to attempt to wade [through] the rough waters on their very own and due to this fact that cooperative approach can bring advantages to each Bayview Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by way of the services they supply,” said Mottley.
[email protected]
Read our ePaper. Fast. Factual. Free.
Join and stay awake to this point with Barbados’ FREE latest news.
