The unfinished mental health care facility in East End is already almost $10 million over budget with government remaining silent on when it will be fit for occupancy.
The Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre is intended for long-term care of people with serious mental health issues, many of whom have been exiled in Jamaica because of a lack of treatment and care options on island.
Figures shared with the Compass, following a freedom of information request, show that government has now spent $24 million – including $22 million in capital expenses – in the seven years since construction began, compared with a pre-construction cost estimate of around $15 million.
The Compass reported earlier this year that government had spent more than $400,000 on the salaries of staff for the unopened facility. The building is substantially finished but had not been cleared for occupancy amid what Health Minister Sabrina Turner has described as “a plethora of problems” including with mechanical engineering and plumbing inspections.
Turner, speaking in Parliament following questions from the Opposition in July, said she could not say how long it would take to resolve the issues. Asked for an update last month, her staff referred questions to the Ministry of Planning and Infrastructure, which did not respond.
Further Compass questions to the Health Ministry last week in relation to the cost overruns were not answered. A spokesperson said there would be an update in parliament at some point this week and anyone interested could watch on government’s television channel, CIGTV.
An initial breakdown of the likely costs and timeline for the much-needed facility indicated that government expected to open the doors on the first seven cottages and the three main buildings in 2018 at a cost of just under $13 million. The addition of two further cottages was expected to take the tab up to $15 million over the longer term.
It is now almost a decade since the project was first launched and five years since construction began in 2019. The bid process for the job was complex and had to be re-tendered because government could not find a contractor, in part because of the amount of private sector construction work that was taking place at that time. It ended up parcelling the work into mini contracts with multiple different companies.
Despite delays during COVID, construction was one of the first industries to get back up and running.
The buildings have been in situ for over a year and government has appointed a director and a large complement of staff to run it. But as of the most recent government update in July, the facility had not received an occupancy licence.
The bulk of the capital expenditure – more than $12 million – was spent between 2020 and 2022, across two governments, according to the FOI response. The Ministry of Health did not answer questions about how much more money or time was likely to be required to complete the job.
Medical professionals have long lamented the lack of proper facilities for people with serious mental health conditions in Cayman. Dr. Marc Lockhart, who quit the Mental Health Commission in 2023 in frustration at the slow progress on the issue, told the Compass last month, “I don’t know why it is taking so long. It is very much needed. For those of us who deal with this [patients with mental health challenges] every day, it is extremely upsetting and frustrating.”
Meanwhile. Cayman patients living at group homes in Kingston told the Compass they were desperate to come home.
“We have been promised for six years that they are going to bring us home,” one long-term patient told the Compass.
“Each month they say, ‘We are coming to get you, we are coming to get you’, and they still haven’t come.”
The Opposition has tabled new parliamentary questions for the next legislative session, starting Monday, in an effort to elicit answers from government over the cost overruns and the timeline for Poinciana.
In her last statement to Parliament in July, Turner said, “I will not provide another estimated timeframe for the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre as that remains beyond my control.”
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Wow..not even close to the budget, and not even close to being completed on time. Good to see CIG are competent and able. At least they can increase work permit fees to pay for their total incompetence.
Anyone got reprimanded for the lack of oversight? The contractor held liable? Contractor’s license pulled until the issues are rectified?
After spending 24million dollars over 7 years we are still sitting on an empty but fully staffed, and desperately needed mental health facility. The fact that nobody in Govt, including the Minister of Health and the Premier feel it necessary to explain to the public,the reason for this mind boggling delay is an insult to all Caymanians and residents. I hope just for once in our history of debacles and this ranks near the top of the league, that someone will be held accountable and pay the penalty for this disaster.
This is shameful! Especially as a brand new purpose built facility. To take so long, cost overruns and still no date for opening?
In what alternative universe does it take seven years and counting, with a 60% cost overrun, to build a somewhat modest facility for so many needy people! Plus what is the cost of housing these people in Jamaica until the facility is reaady for occupancy? Anywhere else you could have built Mar a Lago in half the time. Just one more episode in CIG’s consistently inept leadership.