Construction is set to begin this week on Health City’s $100 million Camana Bay hospital which will feature Cayman’s first specialist cancer and neo-natal care centre.
Premier Wayne Panton, Health City Cayman Islands clinical director Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil and Dart president of business development Jackie Doak, joined by Cabinet members, on Thursday broke ground for the 70,000-square-foot facility.
Located south of the Cayman International School, near the intersection of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway and the new Airport Connector Road, the facility will offer oncology, radiotherapy and neo-natal care.
Panton, in welcoming the investment of the new facility, said the project was an “impressive signal of confidence” in the Cayman Islands economy and in his administration.
A leap forward for local health care
Panton lauded Health City for its “major contribution” to the country, saying he was “proud that we have such great work being carried out on our great soil”.
The project, which was formalised under the Alden McLaughlin Progressives-led administration last February, will see the first phase of the new 70-bed Camana Bay hospital completed by October, with the full facility ready by third quarter 2023.
Chattuparambil, speaking with the Cayman Compass, said, he was excited to see the expansion move forward.
“With the newest technologies and equipment that we are bringing nobody would need to go out of these borders for getting top quality treatment,” he said, adding that robotic surgery will be done at the new hospital.
The robot, he said, will arrive at the end of this month and will be at the East End hospital until the new facility is ready.
“With all these specialties or subspecialties [we are] bringing to the Cayman Islands or this facility, the healthcare landscape is going to completely change. So that’s what we are excited about,” he added.
Health Minister Sabrina Turner said she was looking forward to the medical advancements the new facility will bring to the island, including a medical linear accelerator which will be a significant step for local cancer treatment.
Investment in such an accelerator, she explained, is often made in countries with high gross domestic products, not small islands like Cayman which is why it is “amazing” this technology will be available here.
The linear accelerator customises high energy X-rays or electrons to conform to a tumour’s shape and destroy cancer cells while sparing surrounding normal tissue, according to Radiologyinfo.org, and is one of the innovative cancer-care treatments coming to the advanced oncology department at the hospital.
CAR T-cell therapy and bone marrow transplants will also be available at the Camana Bay facility.
Turner said through the new hospital, more cancer patients will be able to stay home for treatment, reducing the financial strain for families. Similarly, the hospital’s planned neo-natal care department will greatly benefit families with premature babies.
The minister recounted her own experience 28 years ago with her first-born son who was delivered prematurely at 26 weeks. She said back then she was airlifted to Broward County and her family could not go with her; medical techs had to accompany them from Cayman.
Now, through this new facility, she said, parents will not have to experience the trauma of being separated or facing such costs as high phone bills and accommodation expenses.
Doak, speaking at the event, said the hospital ties in with the Camana Bay and Airport Connector Road expansions.
“It is a significant chapter in the story of Camana Bay,” she said.
Opportunities for Caymanians
Dr Devi Shetty, chairman of Narayana Health, Health City’s parent company in India, delivered remarks via video saying that the expansion was a milestone that would not only benefit the Cayman community.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of [the] availability of critical care services locally, without having to travel far from home. The expansion of Health City services by the groundbreaking for our $100 million new campus, here at Camana Bay, will ensure that the entire population of the Caribbean, in general, and the Cayman Islands, in particular, will have world class affordable healthcare,” he said.
Shetty said it was not only about health care for the hospital but encouraging young Caymanians to view medical professions as an option.
He said last summer Health City offered internships to 18 Caymanian students representing universities, colleges and schools from China, Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and the United States.
“High on my wish list is to encourage young boys and girls to embrace the medical profession. I know it will happen. It’s just a matter of time. My dream is that one day the entire Health City Cayman Islands is staffed by the most skilled Caymanian doctors, Caymanian nurses, Caymanian administrators and everyone involved in healthcare,” he said.
It is a dream Health City’s clinical director and chief business officer Shomari Scott share.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our team, and those that will join us in the future. Their energy, expertise and commitment to the people they generously serve will propel us forward, as over the next 18 months we work together to create this new place of hope and healing,” Chattuparambil said.
Scott, speaking with the Compass, said the most important element of the project is that the hospital and the oncology centre are going up at the same time
“The first 10,000 [square feet] is going to be the radiotherapy centre,” he said, which will enable treatment of cancer on island. The centre “will be ready by October of this year”, he added.
He said t was fulfilling to know that “in the future Caymanians and residents’ lives will be saved based on what we’re doing here today”.
Additionally, he said, at present 30% of Health City staff is Caymanian; the goal is, through training programmes, “within 20 years [to] have 70% of the hospital, medical and non-medical [be] Caymanian”.
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