<Bt-3z21>Shelved plans for hospital are called into question
Mrs. Jackson spoke out following the delivery of the Throne Speech last week in which Government declared that healthcare priorities needed to be established before any decision on building a new hospital was made.
“Recent discussions have focused on the proposed location for a new hospital,” the speech read.
“The Government will shift the focus from where the new hospital will be and work with the medical community to establish the priorities for healthcare in Bermuda. Only after it is determined what services the hospital should deliver can costs, location or other decisions be made.”
Health Minister Nelson Bascome later qualified the statement, saying: “We can only make a decision on where the hospital should be located after we have determined what services the hospital should deliver.“We need to make sure that we have the proper resources in place so that we are not going overboard and building something that is unnecessary.”
That statement contrasts with comments made by the former Health Minister Patrice Minors and other health officials when the location of a new hospital was revealed in the summer.
At a press conference on August 30, Mrs. Minors stressed that the decision to build the new facility on the grounds of the Botanical Gardens had been made only after months of consultation and analysis.
She added that it was essential for work to begin immediately so that a new hospital could be completed before King Edward VII Memorial Hospital becomes redundant in 2013.
“This has been an extremely difficult decision for Government to make — we had to consider finance, the environment and the critical state of the current hospital,” Mrs. Minors said.
“Three criteria shaped our decision — the vision for the new hospital must meet the long-term healthcare needs of the community, the cost of the hospital must be affordable for Bermuda, and open space must be maintained.
“We know there will be active and immediate debate on our decision and we welcome this, but it cannot interfere with the advancement of this project. We need to act now, while we have time.”
Mrs. Minors’ comments were backed up by Bermuda Hospitals Board chairman Anthony Richardson. In 2003 the board began devising an Estate Master Plan, to establish what facilities would be required in the future.
Mr. Richardson said: “Our remit is to deliver healthcare services, care and technology that meet Bermuda’s needs. It is the foundation on which we based our vision for the new acute care hospital.
“Our vision is to provide quality, sustainable healthcare to the community over the long term, based on the integration of modern patient, staff and support facilities utilising today’s technology within a natural, healing environment.”
Last night Mrs. Jackson said it appeared Government had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating Bermuda’s healthcare needs only to now ignore those findings.
“There are two contradictions here,” she said.
“Firstly, there was a huge amount spent on the estate plan — I’ve heard figures of up to $2.5 million and it runs to five volumes.
“But now Government is saying that that has basically been thrown out of the window because they have to establish what our healthcare needs are. I can’t believe that Government appears to be so short-sighted on this. It’s a mind-boggling thing to admit.
“We have listened to the former Minister going on about all the man hours and thousands of dollars that went into looking at our healthcare needs before they made a decision on the new hospital.
“And yet now the new Minister is saying we’re back to square one and that future healthcare priorities need to be worked out. Thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent on the Estate Master Plan but what have we got to show for it? Where has the money gone?”
Mrs. Jackson also questioned why Government was willing to put on hold any building work after previously stressing that work needed to begin immediately.
“We are getting conflicting advice. One day KEMH is failing and needs to be replaced as soon as possible, and then we’re told that we will have to wait, that we have to go back and find out what we need for the future. This is not comforting to hear.”
Last night Mr. Richardson confirmed that $1.5 million had been spent compiling the Estate Master Plan, but stressed that that plan was being reviewed, not scrapped.
“As announced in October, we will be undertaking an independent third party review of all data within the Estate Master Plan (EMP). This is extremely important for Bermuda’s future healthcare service delivery and this process should enable BHB, Government and the community to move forward with full confidence,” he said.
“Our EMP is based on research and analysis of Bermuda’s long-term health needs, which included consultation with many stakeholder groups in order to determine our future service profile.
“We presented the EMP to the Bermuda public in a series of public forums in the summer of 2005 and the EMP is publicly available on our web site.”
Shelved hospital plans are called into question by Opposition MP
