The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is moving towards constructing more climate resilient infrastructures.
Speaking in Parliament today (Wednesday 10th January 2024) Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Camillo Gonsalves said, among the projected climate resilient projects in the 2024 budget, is a new state of the art acute care referral hospital, which will be built at a cost of approximately $200 million to build and $40 million to equip.
“It has taken us many years to get to this point. First, we asked the World Bank to help identify the ideal site for a new hospital. Then, again with the help of the World Bank and the Pan American Health Organization, we completed detailed designs for the Hospital. Those designs were subjected to further review and revision, particularly in light of lessons learned after the COVID Pandemic and the Volcanic Eruptions. Various consultants and advisors essential to the process had to be hired,” said Minister Gonsalves.
“Critically, additional funding had to be secured, because the cost and scope of our ambitions exceeded our allocation at the World Bank. Today, we are at the point where we will select the contractor who will actually build the hospital. Physical construction will begin in the second half of 2024,” said the finance, Minister.
The New Hospital will provide services in all domains of acute hospital care including trauma care, acute care surgery, urgent care, critical care, emergency medicine, inpatient stabilization, and outpatient care.
There will also be a full range of allied health services at the new hospital, required to support diagnostic, treatment, and rehabilitative interventions including medical laboratory technology, radiography, pharmacy, audiology, optometry, physical therapy, psychology and social work.
The Acute Care Hospital will also contribute to an increased capacity to treat climate-induced diseases and injuries, such as those resulting from heatwaves, hurricanes, and other climate shocks, which are expected to increase in frequency and severity in the future.
Critically, the Hospital will also play a major role in the management and treatment of non-communicable diseases.
The Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, in turn, will continue to offer its own accident and emergency services, while also becoming a specialist hospital for the health and wellbeing of women, children and families.
Minister Gonsalves said in his Monday 8th 2024 Budget debate, that “while construction of the Acute Care Hospital will begin this year, (2024) the Hospital itself is part of a wider ongoing healthcare reform initiative called the “Strengthening Health System Resilience Project.”
Between recurrent and capital expenditure, Budget 2024 allocates $163 million to healthcare. That is more than 10 percent of the total national budget this year. Just 10 years ago, the recurrent budget of the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment was $63 million.
