EDITOR’S NOTE: The construction of a new hospital at Marigot is currently one of the most controversial issues in Dominica. The hospital has been closed for more than five years now due to mold infestation and the controversy has been raging for sometime over what many consider to be government’s tardiness in building a new facility. In this special report, DNO takes a peek into the history of the Marigot Hospital.
This year we should be observing the 90th Anniversary of the opening of the original Marigot Hospital in 1929. But if you go to Marigot to look for the remains of the hospital and doctor’s residence there is nothing to observe.
Go past the newly renovated Marigot Police Station to where the hospital used to be and you will come across an open empty field. It is a goat pasture, a vacant space overgrown with grass, with no remnant of a building in sight. It is as if nothing ever existed there.
While you stand there, meditate on the generations of people of Marigot and the north east who contributed their time and labour, raised funds and made donations towards ensuring that this important district had its own fully working hospital. It is as if all their contributions were in vain. There must be a moral to this disturbing story and lessons to be learned. Now a renewed promise has been made that the hospital will rise again. Unconfirmed reports hint that the new hospital may be moved to the site of the former St. Andrews School at Londonderry for more space and accessibility to the site of the promised international airport.
IMPORTANT ROLE
Marigot played an important role in the development of health services of Dominica outside of Roseau. Even before the hospital was built, a strong wooden doctor’s residence which survived for over 100 years, served the district medical officer. He went from there on horseback to service all of the dispensaries and clinics that were housed in rented village buildings and police stations in a district that ranged from the Kalinago Territory to Calibishie.
Then the Marigot Cottage Hospital, as it was then called, was constructed and opened in 1929. It was erected with funds donated by a Canadian philanthropist, T.B. Macaulay, augmented by public subscriptions from the community and district estate owners and the government. It contained two small one room wards, with another room used as the nurse’s quarters and a fourth room as an operating theater. Attached was the dispensary, two water closets and a kitchen. A vegetable garden tended by the nurse even provided fresh food. Basic as it seems today, this combination of hospital, home visits, clinics and dispensaries provided the medical needs of the district.
As things progressed, additions were made to the services provided, particularly after 1945 when there was an injection of Colonial Development and Welfare Funds to provide more staff and equipment. There was still no motorable road across the island, so the Marigot Hospital and its doctors had to cope with all manner of cases independent of Roseau. Annual admissions reached 244 in 1972 even over twelve years after the road was opened.
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS
By the mid-1970s, it was realized that a totally new hospital was needed, particularly with the increased use of the neighbouring Melville Hall Airport. Dominica was in a rough economic state during that decade. The total annual budget for 1975-1976 for the whole island, for instance, was just 32 million dollars. A new hospital would require concerted community action to achieve, and indeed it got it.
In 1977, an ambitious project, to replace the old six bed hospital with a 25-bed hospital was launched by a Marigot committee. It proposed that the hospital would be totally self-contained with diagnostic and therapeutic facilities including operating theatre, casualty room, labour room, X-ray and laboratory. Estimated to cost just over $400,000, funds came from a variety of sources: the government self-help scheme contribution was augmented by donations from Geest Industries, Dudley Frank and villager Mrs. Anaclet Thomas, whose husband had recently won the football pools in the UK and who made a sizable donation. Sr. Alicia spearheaded sourcing funds from the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development. Many smaller contributions made up the rest. At a ceremony in early 1981 the new Prime Minister, Eugenia Charles, declared the hospital open.
37 YEARS OF SERVICE
In June 1998, when the UWP launched their international airport project at Londonderry, mention was made of PAHO assisting with a proposal to expand the Marigot hospital. But no more was heard of this before the government was voted out of office in 2000.
In the end, the 1981 hospital served the district for 37 years until it disappeared under bulldozer blades. The authorities blamed termites and fungus. But administrative neglect and lack of maintenance seemed to be the real cause. It is to be hoped that the new promised “smart” hospital donated by Mexico, does not suffer the same fate.
DNO.Next we want a special report on the closing of the Layou 5 Star Hotel and the Reengineered Citizenship Programme.Waiting.
…and thereafter we want a special report on the CBI account, the missing US$100million from Venezuela, the China MOU, the Ross saga, the villas in Savanne Paile, the story behind the PM with 2 diplomatic passport… Plenty more to be investigated!
“Marigot played an important role in the development of health services of Dominica outside of Roseau. Even before the hospital was built, a strong wooden doctor’s residence which survived for over 100 years, served the district medical officer.”
It is a damn shame that to date at this strategic and vulnerable position in Marigot that years have passed and this failed corrupt, incompetent Labour government does not have the decency to have a 24 hour hospital well established at Marigot, where the main Airport is located and where high agricultural products are produced and sold not only to Dominica but for overseas. This appears to be a deliberate act by this failed Skerrit Government. How on earth can a man, called Prime Minister allowed this deliberate act to go on for so many years. Has this man Skerrit got a conscious or he just plays politics to get at Hon Linton and at the same time hurts the children, vulnerable people or marigot etc. This hospital is key to where airport is.
Great piece and history,this shows how evil our people have become,and money controls them,by the grace of God Dominica will be free from all this evil.
A beautiful piece. I enjoy reading and being informed, a well constructed document. We need more of this level of documentary keep it up and please attach your name to your hard work.
Excellent write-up. More reporting please on the pressing issues, although some will continue to bury their heads in the sand at the beach.
Thanks DNO for an unbiased and informative report.
Could you please do a similar report on the aid given to Dominica post-Maria by the various international organisations and how the funds have been spent?
Thank you DNO in anticipation of your report.
Joseph John you are a real idiot who hides behind a fake name! I bet you will never disclose who you are because you prefer to hide behind that name while making ridiculous claims and utterances. What is bias about the article? That it was closed due to fungus and mold and overall neglect? Or the fact that you cannot dispute its content? Even if you love your party right is right and wrong is wrong!
I have a fake name but Bee is your real name You are an insect. My name is as real as the air you breathe. Its on every legal document that I possess including my birth certificate and passport. I guess with your insect name you can fly like a butterfly and sting like a Bee. That makes you very smart and well educated like your leader and patriot with his NDE. I guess you will be disclosing who you really are. Who you bee.
DNO more of this informative reports and stories need to be done by you guys without bias. Good job admin keep it up.
i was born there in 1990…the present situation hurts me to the core
Everytime i read about this topic “the Marigot Hospital”, i am forced to mention how evil, wicked and brutal Skerrit is, even to his own supporters. I agree with patriot Linton that Skerrit likes to see people poor.. This is his mofus operandi, (to impoverish people). With all the money he boasts that our passports are generating, why can’t some be spent in this health district on the hospital?
This hospital will only be built when wicked and lazy Skerrit is voted out at our next polls. Dominica will only make strides when he (Skerrit), is given the boot!!
Skerrit Must Go
Skerrit Must Go
LAZY Skerrit Must Go Now
Modus operandi..
Skerrit Must Go
Skerrit Must Go
LAZY Skerrit Must Go Now
I like, would encourage more ‘special’ reports be done on various issues effecting Dominican society.
However, the manner this was written was very amateurish and seems like a hastily done political hack.
First of all, it attempted to make the report personal instead of leaving facts up to the reader with the use of words like you, we and I. Secondly, no one was interviewed and the sources of information required for a creditable report were not disclosed. Last and not least, the report was ended abruptly, without giving recent updates on the status of the hospital and a future plans. How many people did the hospital serve on an annual basis? What services were rendered? How many beds did it have at closure? Were nurses, janitors and other personel laid off? I did enjoy the history segment though.
But overall im not impressed as I could write this same report without doing much investigative work. Setup your game up or DNO shouldn’t bother writing more reports.
Did you see the editors note. That alone should tell you how the bias is slanting.
I am sure DNO will never give a history of the hospital in the Goodwill/ Roseau area.
So how many hospitals can or should a government build at a time?
Why the silence on the state of the art hospital at goodwill which is being built to serve all Dominicans.
With Dominica being only 26 miles long with 70K people how many hospitals do you need.
I think better roads, better ambulance services supported by two helicopters would do quite nicely. Upscale health centers in Portsmouth, Grandbay and Marigot would be supplement medical facilities.
Fire service men could be trained as paramedics and the Fire Service should be trained and equipped as our first responders unit.
Please Joe, do not try and divert the subject. It does not suit you to do that, is the Marigot hospital that is being discussen here. Your tactic too obvious and not too clever.
Joseph h John…You are nothing but a straight up idiot and a fool. Are you saying that the Marigot area doesn’t need a hospital. You know man I won’t even waste my time to comment on your BS post.