A new hospital is on the cards for Barbados.
The 200-bed facility is to be set up at the old BET building in Wildey, St. Michael, by the American University of Barbados (AUB). It should become operational in 2022.
AUB director Afzal Mehdi and Minister of Education Ronald Jones disclosed these additional plans for the university yesterday at the Wildey complex.
"We already have a hospital in India, so that is how we're planning to have a hospital here also which will cater to medical tourism as well as to our own students..." Mehdi told the DAILY NATION following a tour of the facility.
"Initially, it will start with a polyclinic. We are in discussions with the Ministry of Health and the [Queen Elizabeth Hospital] to start a polyclinic here and later on we will proceed with the main plan," he continued.
The AUB, which was founded in 2011, moved into the Wildey site earlier this year after previously being housed in Lands Down, Silver Sands, Christ Church.
Minister Jones indicated, "Because of the history and the experience of their [AUB's] medical hospital in India, what they are looking to set up here on this facility is a 200-bed hospital so that you would be able to have the teaching experience of the students enhanced at a facility here.
"That would not eliminate, of course, other facilities that we're currently using now, but would enhance their work...What it would also do, according to the specialties they offer, [is] enhance medical tourism," he added.
The minister described the move to create the new hospital as a further commitment to make the AUB the most sought-after medical school not only in the region, but the world.
AUB is an associate concern of Era's Lucknow Medical College, widely regarded as the premier Medical College in Lucknow, India. AUB also maintains several relationships with hospitals in the United States of America, where its students may complete their clinical rotations.
Adapted from the Nation Newspaper
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