GROUND BROKEN ON $210 MILLION FACILITY
NASSAU, Bahamas, May 17, 2023 — Government officials broke ground yesterday on a $210 million health care facility on Grand Bahama that is expected to vastly improve health care services on the island, The Nassau Guardian reported on Wednesday, May 17, in an article written by Jared Higgs.
Among the entities being built at the Freeport Health Campus are an outpatient and urgent care facility that officials say will serve Bahamians and non-Bahamians for “generations to come”.
The campus is located off East Sunrise Highway.
Prime Minister Philip E. Davis said the groundbreaking was proof that Grand Bahama was no longer on the back burner.
“Thanks to the tireless work by the Ministry of Health and Wellness officials, Public Hospitals Authority leadership, clinical and technical experts, and local health planners, we break ground on the Freeport campus and open a new chapter in the story of health care,” Davis said.
“This new chapter will define this new medical center as a place of healing, restoration and care. Every day, our doctors, nurses and allied health staff show immense skill and caring hearts. … We look forward to the day when the joy of recovery echoes through the halls of the new Freeport Health Campus that we’ve built right here.
“It is particularly noteworthy that this endeavour begins during a year when Bahamians nationwide and around the globe commemorate the golden anniversary of our national independence.
“This significant juncture in our nation’s history offers an opportunity for introspection on the remarkable progress we have achieved in terms of our development, culture and economy.”
Minister of Health Dr. Michael Darville, who worked as a physician himself in Grand Bahama, said he knows all too well the challenges facing the Rand Memorial Hospital, which include manpower shortages and structural issues.
“Every Bahamian must have access to health care the same way they need access to water, food, utilities and electricity,” Darville said. “This project is a phased design build project. The first phase of our project will be the establishment of a close to 60,000 square foot facility that will be usable as phase 1b of the project is initiated and the final phase is initiated simultaneously. It’s a design build for those who understand the architectural terms. The project is being designed as we build it.”
The project is viewed as a much needed infrastructural upgrade on Grand Bahama, which has struggled economically compared to the days when Freeport was known as the “Magic City”.
Hurricane Dorian brought major destruction to the island in 2019. Prior to that, the impact of other hurricanes including Frances and Jeanne dampened development on the island.
The COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in significant job losses on the island, as it did for much of the world.
Darville told Grand Bahamians in attendance that the new facility will provide an economic boost for the island as a result of the works being carried out, adding that the campus will coordinate with other health care facilities in the country.
“I want to speak a little bit about the economic impact this project will have on Grand Bahama,” he said.
“This project is being funded by the World Bank. It is marked at a $210 million project, and the economic impact that it will have on the restoration of Grand Bahama will be clear, because the smaller contractors, those individuals who are contract workers will have an opportunity to get a piece of this pie.
“We’re going to make sure that there’s a trickle down effect where young entrepreneurs, those who are in the construction industry can benefit and learn from the expertise that would be applied here.”
He also announced that cancer patients from Grand Bahama will no longer need to travel to New Providence for treatment.
“This facility will have an oncology center because I have seen it on a Monday to Wednesday, our patients are traveling back and forth for chemotherapy; [they] sometimes can hardly stand on their feet after the procedure. Those days will finally go away.
“The beauty about this project is this project is connected with the delivery of health care services in the northern region, which is a plan that we are moving towards, the construction not only of a facility here in Grand Bahama, but a healthcare facility for New Providence.
“This healthcare facility in New Providence will connect the Exumas, New Providence and the southern Bahamas to provide urgent care facility and manpower resources. … Likewise for Abaco, Bimini and the Berry Islands, we will redirect traffic so we can have smoother flows of delivery of health care services throughout the Commonwealth.
“And we will continue to press on to ensure that every citizen in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas has access to essential health care services irrespective of their socioeconomic background or ethnicity or where they may be in our archipelago. In Andros, we are renovating all the clinics. In Eleuthera, we are on the ground renovating the clinics. In Bimini, they are expecting their clinic to start right away.
“This is the vision for the delivery of National Health Insurance that is moving very rapidly throughout the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. We have placed in the House of Assembly the National Health Insurance Bill 2022 that will repeal and replace the current National Health Insurance Act. This will put the delivery of primary health care services on steroids.”
