Plans for the proposed US$350 million Aster Cayman Medcity medical tourism hospital in West Bay appear to have been abandoned.
Although there has been no official confirmation from the Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare group behind the hospital, there has been no movement on the project since it was granted planning permission more than two years ago.
The initiative was first announced in a joint press conference by Aster, the Progressives-led government and the late developer Gene Thompson in December 2020.
Mark Scotland, who had been a consultant on the project, recently told the Compass he is no longer involved.
He said of the Aster Medcity plan, “If you were to ask me if it’s going ahead, I would say it does not seem so.”
The Compass has reached out to the Aster group but has received no response.
Thompson, who had helped establish Dr. Devi Shetty’s Health City Cayman Islands hospital which opened in 2014, was the driving local force behind the plans for Aster Cayman Medcity. He passed away in February this year.
Thompson, when he announced the location for the proposed facility in 2021, confirmed that Aster was the sole investor in the project.
A billboard for the proposed health facility, off the Esterley Tibbetts Highway, remains in place, advertising jobs and the facility’s website.
However, the website, astermedcitycayman.com, is no longer active, and its Facebook page has not been updated since December 2021.
The Central Planning Authority approved a ‘planned area development’ for the healthcare facility on the 40-acre site in May 2021. A planned area development refers to a site with mixed uses – in this case, institutional, residential and commercial.
Despite being given planning permission, no clearing or any other work has been carried out at the site, which is located at the junction of Batabano Road and the Esterley Tibbetts Highway.
The developers behind Aster Cayman Medcity had initially planned to open a 150-bed multi-specialty hospital, which would later be expanded to include 500 beds. The proposal also included plans for a medical school and assisted-living accommodations.
The main targeted clients for the hospital were to be medical tourists from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
Dr. Azad Moopen, founder of Aster DM Healthcare, said at the December 2020 press conference that his company, which has 365 facilities across eight countries, had been planning to expand outside Asia and the Middle East, and had been “in search of an ideal location and supportive government and associates to make this a reality”.
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