NEW HOSPITAL PLAN?
BY MICAH GEORGE

The idea is yet to be brought before Government for consideration and approval however it is getting heavy rotation in the press and is now becoming the subject of public discussion, as St. Lucians try to come to terms with the change in plans.
It was Health Minister Keith Mondesir and his team at the Ministry of Health Wednesday, on a tour of the unfinished structure, which was started by the Chinese to house St. Lucia’s new Psychiatric Hospital on the Millennium Highway who mooted the idea of changing the 104 bed structure to one housing about 200 beds, adding that the structure was large enough to accommodate the added beds.
Mondesir and his team were at the time in the company of a visiting delegation from Taiwan here to present its plans to the Government regarding what was needed for the completion of the hospital.
As pointed out by Tom Chou, the Taiwanese ambassador to St. Lucia, the delegation is here to fulfill his Government’s commitment to the Government of St. Lucia. This commitment is to complete the mental facility, which was left unfinished by the Chinese when Government re-established diplomatic relations with Taiwan last April.
The group of experts was here in October last year to examine the facility to determine what was needed and to draw up a blueprint for completion.
The group Wednesday presented its plans to the Government of St. Lucia, however after discussion with Minister Mondesir and his team had to re-examine their original plans to determine whether they could work with the adjustments the Minister and his team had in mind.
Ambassador Chou Thursday told The VOICE that the Taiwanese experts saw no problems with the adjustments suggested and quickly adapted their original plans to suit the proposals coming from Minister Mondesir and his team.
The original idea for the site on the Millennium Highway which was started under the previous Labour administration was for the site to accommodate a new general hospital plus a new psychiatric hospital the two entities would be separate from each other, yet be in close proximity to each other.

Mondesir’s proposal would put the two hospitals under one roof.
This idea has raised several questions a propos Victoria Hospital and the situation with mental patients in St. Lucia.
For instance, with Golden Hope Hospital housing about 70 patients and the Bordelais Correctional Facility housing about 60 inmates considered mentally problematic, how could a 40 bed psychiatric hospital handle the growing number of mental patients in the country?
Health Minister Mondesir yesterday at a press conference was careful in explaining that the change in plans was not cast in stone. The Cabinet of Ministers has yet to discuss the idea and give a decision, however Mondesir has been trying to get his idea out in the public arena in the absence of a final nod from Government.
He is assisted by the Taiwanese experts who yesterday explained that the idea is more than feasible, it could work. In fact the Taiwanese yesterday explained exactly what facilities would be on each floor of the new structure on the Millennium Highway. The structure has three floors. Ambassador Chou pointed out however, that it is not for his Government to decide what should be done. His Government is there to assist the Government of St. Lucia in whatever the Government of St. Lucia decides.
Minister Mondesir would also have to explain whether Victoria Hospital would remain a general hospital or changed into something else.
Minister Mondesir and his team are open to ideas regarding the construction of a new hospital, making the case that should Government go along with the original plans for the site, Government would end up spending millions of dollars on a 112 bed hospital, far more than what was originally thought the hospital would cost.
Another idea floating around would be to make the new structure on the Millennium Highway a new general hospital in its entirety and transforming Victoria Hospital into a mental hospital along with offices and other ancillary health facilities.
It is unclear whether the technical people attached to the Ministry of Health had much of an input, or any input at all into the proposed, yet detailed plans for the Millennium Highway structure which were presented yesterday at a press conference by a Taiwanese expert.
The point of it all is that as far as Minister Mondesir is concerned the cost of going ahead with the original plans for the site would be too exorbitant therefore another way had to be looked at. His is just one other way.