Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville has revealed that funding for the new hospital in New Providence has been secured.

Darville said a $290 million loan has been secured from the Export-Import Bank of China. He spoke with ZNS News on Tuesday outside of Cabinet about the new specialty hospital that will be located on New Providence Highway. “I clearly outlined that due to the pandemic that is shortages of manpower resources and it would be ludicrous to try to build a second campus of the Princess Margaret Hospital. We believe that our health care planners advised us properly to take those specialty services out and the services that are left behind expand them and to improve the physical plant at the Princess Margaret Hospital. So we feel confident that we’re on the right track,” Darville said.

The Minister also addressed the issue of the shortage of medical professionals in the country in light of the addition of the new facility. He said, “we’re pleased to report that through our PHA Academy we’re training Allied Healthcare Workers. We have a very robust trained clinical nurse program, UB is onboard where they’re producing more nurses. The University of the West Indies, now, is also onboard where we’re producing more doctors. So we have a strategy for manpower resources. We have a short, medium and long-term strategy. There are shortages now. You see where I recruited nurses from Africa. I recruited nurses from the Philippines and I’ve recruited some Allied Healthcare Professionals from Cuba in the short term. This is all to get the system up and going but training is paramount when you start talking about building new hospitals and improving healthcare delivery systems throughout the country.”

Groundbreaking for the new hospital is expected to be held by September of this year.

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