PM: National rehab centre in the works

Government is in the initial stages of facilitating the establishment of a National Rehabilitation Centre specifically for athletes, accident victims, and others suffering from joint pains and injuries.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley disclosed on Thursday that the new specialty facility is on the cards and could be located at the site of the Ursuline Convent School.

“We are in very early stages of seeing how we can establish, either through private sector facilitation or in a public-private partnership, a National Rehabilitation Centre,’ she said during the St George Speaks town hall meeting, in response to a question about the delays experienced by persons seeking treatment for joint pain and injuries at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).

Mottley explained that prior to the death of attorney-at-law and social activist Douglas Trotman in December last year, she had met with him and had committed to working with his team to establish the centre.

“That would not just be for people who get into car accidents or whatever but [for] a lot of our athletes . . . .All of you who have problems that need to be met,” Mottley said.

She said with the pending closure of the Ursuline Convent School in August 2023, stakeholders were in talks to possibly use that site for the proposed rehab centre, given its central location and available amenities.

“Without talking in advance, I hope that Minister [of Education Kay] McConney and Minister [of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight] Sutherland can negotiate and reach some kind of reasonable settlement that would allow us to be able to use that site for a public-private partnership or maybe even a private sector investment,” the Prime Minister said.

“There is a pool, for example, already on the Ursuline Convent campus, and [the school is] less than two minutes drive to Browne’s Beach, which is one of the best beaches in Barbados, and then you have the main hospital there.”

Mottley said that outside of those plans, the QEH was working on clearing the backlog of joint-related surgeries.

“The QEH has ordered the surgical equipment and artificial hip and knee joints in various sizes, and the plan is moving now to do 10 to 12 joint replacements per month, because there is a backlog that is considerable at about 400 to 500 people waiting for joint replacements,” she said.