PM Skerrit gives date for new hospital groundbreaking

Artiste's rendition of a section of the new hospital
Artiste’s rendition of a section of the new hospital

Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, has finally given a definite date for the groundbreaking of the new much talked about hospital in Dominica.

Speaking on a radio show on Kairi FM on Wednesday night, Skerrit said the ceremony for the China-funded facility will take place on August 8, 2016.

“So August 8 2016, we will see commencement of the new national hospital,” he said. “All the issues have been addressed on both sides. The Chinese are constructing their residencies, accommodation and they have started the process to set up their offices.”

He stated that ‘temporary wards’ are ‘underway’ and are being constructed by the Chinese.

“Immediately after the groundbreaking we will see actual, physical commencement of the hospital,” he noted.

Skerrit described the facility as a “long awaited project” which is much welcomed by the country, adding that it will be a completely new hospital “contrary to what some people are saying.”

“We look forward to its commencement and we look with eagerness to its completion,” he remarked. “Our hope and prayer are that that will motivate those in the health services to be exceptionally diligent in the delivery of health care services.”

On Wednesday, July 14, Health Minister, Dr. Kenneth Darroux said on Kairi’s Heng Program that all the I’s were dotted and all the T’s were crossed in relation to the hospital.

He said the facility was delayed for a number of reasons including the challenges of building a hospital on the site of an existing one which is fully functional.

“That in itself, from any lay person’s point of view was going to pose challenges…” Darroux said.

Talks of constructing a new hospital in Dominica goes back to 2010.

That year then Health Minister, Julius Timothy, announced that the groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital in the Roseau North constituency was “coming soon.”

That same year Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, said Warner should be considered as a possible location for the hospital.

Two years later, in 2012 Timothy said the existing Princess Margaret Hospital would soon be revamped and the country will have a “relatively new hospital early next year” (2013).

In 2013, Prime Minister Skerrit said the new hospital was among projects to be undertaken that year through gratuitous aid and concessionary financing from the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

At that time, Skerrit mentioned that they were “unfolding the designs” of the hospital.

In January 2015, Darroux said new information, new points of view and ideas about the hospital had surfaced and a site for the facility was yet to be determined.

He said a decision on the new site would be determined very soon and “within the next few weeks” the nation would be informed.

It was subsequently revealed that the facility will be constructed in Goodwill, at the site of the PMH.

In May 2015, Skerrit said groundbreaking would be held in July 2015.

In November 2015, Skerrit said everything is now settled between Dominica and China and the groundbreaking will now be held in the first quarter of 2016.

Recently Darroux said the construction of the hospital had “essentially started.”

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69 Comments

  1. masterme
    August 9, 2016

    Curious to know how many beds

  2. LOL
    July 15, 2016

    Please count the wards before construction begins…we do not want another Bath Estate hehehehhe

  3. Reasoning
    July 15, 2016

    Every time this prime mistake opens his mouth, one would think he’s sitting on a toilet! An explosive device should be shoved in his mouth!

  4. keepingitreal
    July 15, 2016

    the day our PM makes his next child in DA..then i will say we have a hospital.

  5. Salt Sucker
    July 15, 2016

    Hahahahahaahahha. Boy them man have good guts…!

  6. Honest One
    July 15, 2016

    My concern is not the date of ground breaking but the lack of transparency on the hospital. Government should have hard widespread consultation on the hospital project before it get started. We should ensure that we get this one rigt because a hospital is something that a country does every 50 years. Will the hospital be equipped with the most technology that exist in health these days and is it robust enough to adjust to the rapidly changing technology. The government has lost a golden opportunity to include the people in a very significant project and i foresee numerous issues with that new hospital. Just ask the people at the National Stadium, the President House and the Dominica State College the issues thay are having with maintenance of these buildings

  7. Favoured
    July 15, 2016

    Ok boy that’s about the fifth date being promised for the start or completion of this ‘Fiasco Hospital’ and maybe the third or fourth financing package. The first four pillar project had a hospital, the second pillarless Package from China included a hospital, the My Dominica Trade House had a hospital and numerous health facilities, and now another package with a state of the art hospital. So the question where is all monies that were made available for the previous projects. Or wasall that over the last 1″ years tomfoolery. Garcon we are the best. Dominica really nice boy! Sherrit boy continue what you doing garcon the people like it so!

  8. Tj
    July 15, 2016

    I do not want to sound pessimistic but with six years of false start I will wait for the finish product

  9. bigger
    July 15, 2016

    Well what can say? lt dosen’t matter what this government does the Haters will criticise it they cannot offer any constructive suggestion because they are hell bent to stop development in this country but the people of Dominica is too intelligent to allow this to happen. They have been doing this for the past sixteen years and the people rejects them time and time again but they will not learn because they are consumed with hatred and jealousy. Please my advice to the government if the UWP ever agrees with any project what so ever please abbot it because it wont be fruitful

    • true dominican
      July 15, 2016

      true

  10. GrandBayrian
    July 15, 2016

    look dates papa, and there is no wedding yet?

  11. “Our hope and prayer are that that will motivate those in the health services to be exceptionally diligent in the delivery of health care services.”–News Article

    Prime Minister, Sir, those who deny your fruitfulness pertaining to Dominica and her people, have chosen to do so, through the blindness & darkness of their mind.

    They are afraid to acknowledge the Power behind your works , which is from God Almighty –our Supreme Conductor, Controller, Counsellor, and Guidance–for your success in your every move, is a truth that is too painful for them

    Your words above is a good example , for Prayer is our channel to God by faith, and Hope is the assurance, which He gives to us, to know that things will be done; but we also need patience, to wait on His time–not ours, it never works.

    You are a humble man Sir, before God, He is pleased with you. He alone can exalt you; but no matter how high you feel–hold on to humility; it is good for you.

  12. Sams Gutter
    July 14, 2016

    Please deliver on one project. Be it be the hospital, thermal energy somethings. Too many promises, I’m not a UWP supporter

  13. thus far
    July 14, 2016

    that one really in the sky that’s why shovel cannot touch ground to break so loooong!!

  14. Reasoning
    July 14, 2016

    :?: As long as this ….. prime mistake opens his mouth with a promise of pretty talk,his blind followers applaud in vain! This promised hospital was supposed to be completed since in 2010,when this i ….signed a mou,murder of us! From that time,he’s been playing with the mind of his blind followers! Is a radio station where his partisan political gimmick is being played the place to announce affairs of the state? This is what happens when one is incompetent and not a stateman,this is a boy playing in a rumshop politics!

  15. July 14, 2016

    We do not want any artist rendition . Give us the real thing.

  16. Fete boy
    July 14, 2016

    I will believe it when I hear/see the names of the bands playing at the “groundbreaking” sewo. :lol: :lol: :lol:

  17. July 14, 2016

    I think the hospital name should be changed

    • Tell the Facts
      July 14, 2016

      You think. Did you consider what the others think? Princess Margaret Hospital is quite appropriate. The name should remain as is.

    • Favoured
      July 15, 2016

      Name changed to ” The fiasco Hospital”.

  18. jonathan st jean
    July 14, 2016

    Haven’t we heard that before.I bet we have.Therefore we’ll wait to see it happen and the project completed.Ground breaking does not always result in completed projects.We have a good example in Layout River Hotel and also in Portsmouth

    • dee
      July 14, 2016

      I really smelling somefing fishy
      somefing in de air en I say
      WAIT FOR IT IT COMING .I

      • FORKIT
        July 14, 2016

        something is fishy because we dont know how its being financed… lord i pray for good health for at least 10 years from the 8th of august… amen

  19. derp
    July 14, 2016

    that hospital design though… most modern hospitals have stories so you can just take the elevator down to the different departments….

    • Nigel
      July 14, 2016

      That can’t be applied to Dominica since we are prone to tremors and hurricanes. duh

      • derp
        July 14, 2016

        oh really Japan prone to tons of earthquakes and hurricanes, yet you never hear of a skyscraper in Japan collapsing… there is something called earthquake resistant

      • Confused Reader
        July 14, 2016

        So the Financial Center…..?

  20. July 14, 2016

    How many groundbreaking it gonna take before its buildt?? :-D

  21. Green browm
    July 14, 2016

    Then comes the name change

    • My 2 Cents
      July 14, 2016

      And so what?

    • Tell the Facts
      July 14, 2016

      To what? :twisted: :mrgreen: :twisted: :mrgreen: :twisted: :mrgreen:

  22. Erasmus B. Black
    July 14, 2016

    Did Dear Leader have his “game face ” on when he made this latest announcement?

    A late, former MP for Portsmouth once accused the Lady Dame of playing Bebelle. Oh boy, if only he knew! Seems like over the last decade Bebelle has been taken to the next level with official rules of running your mouth first and acting later. And just like you can catch the new Pokemon in out of the way places, you can also catch the new Bebelle man/woman in out of the way places like hospital, abattoir, Dubai, restaurant, pit toilet, Erica house or in any other modest house, on big, big project like you’ve never seen in your life , ministry, big, big hotel, and along the road from Capuchin to Cashakou or Itassi to Grand Anse or to the Douglas/Charles Airport. So let the Hospital Bebelle games begin! Again!

  23. stalin putin
    July 14, 2016

    once again the government continues to deliver on its promises. many of the critics kept asking what was in the M.O.U signed between our prime minister and china some years ago. Today some of them have children in china doing their first and second degrees yet still they ask what was in the M.O.U. well here is another manifestation of one of the major projects in that agreement. let’s wait to see the usual suspects froth from all sides of their mouths and create all kinds of criticisms. They did the same with the west coast road and the new grammar school and so to when improvements were being done to the now Douglas Charles airport claiming that Venezuela was building a military base.
    One good thing about this our beloved leader,he does not get distracted and flustered and so all we as Dominicans can expect is more development going forward. the most heartening thing about all of this is that while they try to stop progress,their political ambitions are like that of men quicksand.

    • Jon Jones
      July 14, 2016

      Will there be any local employment on this project? What is the expected completion date?

    • Noreen
      July 14, 2016

      Stop blabbing you call that an airport
      Waiting for the next storm.

    • Favoured
      July 15, 2016

      New Grammer School and the landscaping of the school can’t be completed ; you can’t be serious. The Dominica Grammer School used to be our premier institution among Secondary Institutions that could be compared to any school of its kind in the Caribbean. Can we honestly say that today. Go online to see what St.Lucia, Grenada and Antigua has as secondary institution compared to what we have and tell me if you should boast the grammar school in its present state. It’s pathletic that the Old Boys of that school haven’t seen it fit to demand that the grounds of the school be properly landscaped what a shame.

    • Chou mamaw
      July 15, 2016

      Going forward??? I hope u ain’t talking abt progress

  24. aa
    July 14, 2016

    I wonder if the next royal baby will be born there?

    • KID ON THE BLOCK
      July 14, 2016

      Yes! Yours will surely born there. Won’t you happy?

      • aa
        July 15, 2016

        I will be very happy

  25. forreal
    July 14, 2016

    challenging for sure,i do not see why warner was not chosen it’s more centralized to facilitate town and country areas,but anyway we got to take what we are being given, i already can imagine the relocating of sick patients,this ain’t gonna be any easy excercise

  26. July 14, 2016

    we need a date for the marigot hospital now.

  27. josh shaw
    July 14, 2016

    I hope this date is nothing similar to that date given for a tablet for every child! I’m just saying

    • ??????.....
      July 14, 2016

      Josh Shaw they got the tablet didn’t they? Does everything have to be negative? Those things especially government things take time even when the intentions are good. So many discussions and sometimes little things stop and all that government bureaucracy and red tape makes some ting that they seem easy take while. I know what I am talking about. Procedures and robotic thinking type of persons keeps things citing as procedural and a simple signature can take as long as that person thinks it should. The Public service does not operate as the private sector. I know someone who was asked to bring in a document about 6 months ago and it is still lying at the very place deposited and with the wrong notation. You see how the wrong information message can be conveyed.

    • Tell the Facts
      July 14, 2016

      You love bringing up the past. You must be residing in the past. They got the tablets. So what?

  28. lightbulb
    July 14, 2016

    the hospital should be renamed also.

  29. DA Native in Texas
    July 14, 2016

    I would like to applaud the PM and his cabinet for finally deciding to build the new hospital. I imagine since the government will be getting $ from China it goes without saying that they should build it, but please make sure it’s built to standards. That being said I have just one question I would like to ask the PM and any health official who sat with, decided to, endorsed, or agreed to build the new hospital on the same location as the PMH? How is it going to be possible to deliver “excellent medical care” during the construction of the hospital with so much noise and dust?

    • Not too smart
      July 14, 2016

      Apart from the noise and disruption of building a new hospital on the same site, I wish we would use these major infrastructure projects to be a kernel and magnet for new development in other areas. In the same vein, I’ve always regretted that the stadium was placed in the middle of Roseau with no place for parking or future expansion of sporting facilities. Had it been built in an underdeveloped part of Dominica, we would have had space to subsequently and progressively expand the stadium into a sporting complex with the addition of, e.g., an athletics track, Olympic-style swimming pool, indoor gymnasium, etc. Further, the presence of the stadium could attract the development of guest houses and hotels, residential areas, supermarkets, etc. We have limited land for development in Dominica, but the area around Warner is ripe for development though we need to improve the road access to that area. The same thinking should have gone into determining the site for the new hospital.

      • NIce
        July 14, 2016

        You don’t give urself credit..YOu really are smart.. they should have left upgraded windsor park and build that stadium in another zone for improvement..i never really saw it like that until u said ..hmm…maybe I am not that smart after all..best comment on this Loser news Page.

      • Jon Jones
        July 14, 2016

        That decision brings to mind the saying… ‘Lions led by donkeys’
        Such an amazing lack of foresight is almost unbelieveable.

  30. DomiChina
    July 14, 2016

    Good Job PM
    Hope it does have a Helipad and there are plans to construct an international airport and that there are adequate staff to operate the facilities and money to pay them.

    • NatureBoy
      July 15, 2016

      Hope it will have an adequate MAINTENANCE budget!

  31. Channel 1
    July 14, 2016

    Steeuuuppppppppsssssssssss. These jokers and their “ground breakings”. This government is known for “breaking the ground” and having the tendency to not do anything following the “breaking of the ground”.

    An example – The Coast Guard which supposed to have been built in the north. Remember dem fellas didn’t just say they would have a ground-breaking for the Northern Coast Guard base on such and such date eh; dem fellas ACTUALLY HAD a ground-breaking ceremony for the base – featuring Skerrit digging a hole with a spade – plus grant financing being made available for the base to be built YET…….YET up to this day, not even DNO’s investigative journalists can report to the public as to what has happened to that base.

    Where is the North Coast Guard base? If it ain’t in the north, which coast has the base gone to guard?

    Reminder – https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/economy-development/ground-breaking-for-northern-coast-guard-base-new-vessels-commissioned/

  32. CC
    July 14, 2016

    I hope the govt ministers will actually use the hospital should the need arise, and not run overseas to have treatment.

    • Advocate
      July 14, 2016

      I hope you will not have use for it too. God bless you!

      • CC
        July 14, 2016

        God bless you too

  33. who cares
    July 14, 2016

    a hospital without up to date equipment as well as a staff properly trained to operate them is still a great problem. we also need to stop that ‘one surgeon thing’ and have a team of professional surgeons. how many surgeons are there in Dominica? how many specialized surgeons do we have? so are we going to have a nice looking hospital and it stops there?

    the hospital would also become profitable if it is up to date and know for its professional work because regional patients would now be coming to Dominica for its medical services.

    • I Care
      July 14, 2016

      Maybe you should start by appealing to all the Dominicans who receive Government scholarships to go study medicine at Ross and further afield to return home and make a meaningful contribution to the development of the health sector.

      • bb
        July 14, 2016

        well i think if the government was concerned with where the people they give the scholarsips to study they would make it either a ross or all saints scholarship so they would not have a choice but to stay on island to do their studies.

      • Lil
        July 14, 2016

        and be paid what? they have the same desires as all of us, desire the same things in life as the rest of us, and a majority of the time you make better money out there. Time waits on no man.

  34. Jaded
    July 14, 2016

    Just don’t name it “Princess Margaret Hospital”.

  35. unknown
    July 14, 2016

    smh chinese facility again , fragile like DSC :-D :-D

  36. %
    July 14, 2016

    Stuppesss.Man just go build the hospital.Thats what you are there to do,as lazy,inept and incompetent as you and the rest of the gang are..The number of ground breaking should leave us with at least 12hospitals so far!!!….Wicked leaders!!!!!!!BY THE WAY ROSEAU AS THE LOCATION,is another glaring example of the level of idiocy and incompetence exihibted by this vile DLP!!!Clueless gang of idiots!!!

    • DA Person
      July 14, 2016

      % you cannot even MAN UP. It is very easy to figure out who you are, because you criticize for criticizing sake. The dirtiest part about you % you insult people over and over, that just show us your character. Anyone who doesn’t agree with your philosophy you swiftly try to belittle them. Who DOES that? Man UP-!

      • %
        July 14, 2016

        You seem to be one of Skerrits ideologues.when I speak or write about the ineptness and incompetence of my PM,if you cannot stomach it,TOO BAD FOR YOU..He has failed you,and he has failed Dominica!!!Give me the projects over the past 17 years that these clowns have been wrecking Dominica,that has
        employed 50 or more Dominicans!!!NONE!! The blockheads still want to locate a multi million dollar facility in ROSEAU?Do you know the risk roseau faces? They are idiots!

    • case
      July 14, 2016

      sound like a disgrunted idiot that don’t care..so long we crying hospital is a dead zone..now someone PM or whoever is talking improvement is a problem with you fools..

      is always a silly thing with all you petty Dominicans lets look at it for what it is..even though is 14 years they dere and now it building but who cares once it build and it better than that CASUAL-TEE is all.

      They should change the name in the new building cuz that CASUAL making them nurses lazy and dough care cuz they more Casual with your life..EMERGENCY ROOM OR ER or CI aka Critical Injuries..

      but the casual thing it makes nobody move with speed ..they just updere killing people and blaming the government..Skeritt didn’t send some-one home and they die two days after..Skeritt don’t diagnose people and kill them.

      I agree them nurses need more medical TOOLS and maybe even a pay increase..but more importantly they need CUSTOMER SERVICE outdere..i saw a man came dere and get a stroke and faint and die…

    • KID ON THE BLOCK
      July 14, 2016

      %, put a PIG in a palace it still remains a PIG! Meditate on that!

      • %
        July 14, 2016

        Are you satisfied by now that you are in the pen?

  37. jim jones
    July 14, 2016

    good job my pm

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