After being dormant for almost three decades, the site of the former St Joseph Hospital is to be revived in a joint venture between the Government and the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.
This was revealed on Tuesday by Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland as he introduced two resolutions in the House of Assembly – one to rescind a resolution passed 10 years ago that approved the lease of the hospital’s Ashton Hall, St Peter property to American World Clinics (Barbados) Limited; and the other to approve the vesting of the hospital’s 21.485 acres of land in a joint venture between Government and the university.
The land is being vested in a commercial Special Service Vehicle in which the Government will hold 25 per cent of the shares and the UWI Cave Hill Campus will hold the remaining 75 per cent.
Sutherland said the joint venture would give the university an opportunity through which it can be more financially independent and less dependent on Government.
“We recognised that if we were to carry out our mandate, our developmental mandate…that we had to do something different with the UWI and it could not be the same-old, same-old funding to the tune of $100 million…,” Sutherland said, noting that for financial year 2022-2023, Government would be providing the UWI with $99.2 million.
“[In] the vesting of this land . . . we said ‘let’s give the university the opportunity to create a balance sheet profile’…. When we create a balance sheet profile, then the university can begin to go out to the world to look for financing and finance their own development,” he explained.
Two years ago, then principal of the UWI Cave Hill Campus Professor Eudine Barriteau announced that a teaching hospital had been planned for the former St Joseph Hospital.
At the time, she said they were in the early stages of planning but the goal was to enable the university to “operate a hospital to pursue the goal of delivering the highest quality of health care and superior clinical outcomes while advancing medical research and education”.
Sutherland reminded on Tuesday that the St Joseph Hospital was closed in 1995 because it had been a strain on the public purse.
“The general public questioned how the St Joseph Hospital was being run, how it was managed, what were the policy guidelines, and it came under scrutiny from the Public Accounts Committee. When we came to office in 1994, it was evident by the then Prime Minister that the St Joseph Hospital, in its current operation then, was a drain on taxpayers in this country and on Government funding and it was closed down,” he said.
Efforts by the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration to reopen it had been unsuccessful.
In March, a resolution was passed in Parliament approving the lease to American World Clinics (Barbados) Limited of the entire property for the development and operation of an international health centre.
However, that never got off the ground.
Meanwhile, Sutherland said the Mia Mottley administration’s move to lease the former hospital site was also in line with Government’s plans to restore derelict buildings across the island.
He pointed to the repairs and renovations being made to the old Supreme Court, the Barbados Water Authority ‘Gatehouse’, and the Welfare Department. The Housing Minister said plans were also in the works for the old Town and Country Planning building.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
