Hinds sees healthcare investment in hospital partnership

Independent Senator Dr Kristina Hinds is concerned about what it will take to move the St Joseph Hospital in St Peter which has been abandoned for three decades, into a facility set to be the home of a partnership between the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus and Government.

Delivering her maiden speech in hte Senate Wednesday on the rescinding of Resolution No. 12/2012, Dr Hinds said she hopes provisions are being made for the investment aspect of the partnership between the university and the state.

“This will also require some investment and I hope that this element of this arrangement is taken very seriously and we are not left with another asset that is overgrown, sitting down for years, with people wondering how we will make effective use of it.

“I hope that it will be put to good use for the health sector. I also, in thinking to the previous debate about the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), I would love to see a healthcare facility in the north that stops us from being so reliant on just our Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown,” she said.

The partnership is intended to give Government access to 25 per cent of the shares, and UWI Cave Hill the remaining 75 per cent. The initiative is being seen as an opportunity for UWI to become more financially independent.

However, Dr Hinds said the research and innovation that will be derived from the proposed partnership must not only be seen as a means for UWI to generate money, but must also be used to improve the lives of Barbadians and its regional neighbours.

“I would like for us to think about this beyond monetisation because there is value in this beyond whatever the University of the West Indies may be able to gain financially to support itself. There is greater value in this. I think we need to move beyond a neoliberal conception of universities and education, which see them as just putting out items to be sold,” she said. (AH)