More than a year after Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage in Dominica, construction work on the multi-million dollar Chinese funded hospital will resume next month, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has announced.
Speaking on the state-owned DBS radio, Skerrit said that a delegation from Beijing had visited the island for talks on the hospital and schools.
“I have been advised by the Chinese side that we could see a resumption of works at the new hospital next month,” he said, adding that the delegation had agreed to a number of requests from the government with regards to the hospital.
“We signed an agreement on this and they will move to make those changes as requested by the Ministry of Health,” Skerrit said, adding that “the Chinese government has also agreed to redo the roofs of the hospital.”
In August 2016, Dominica launched the construction of the EC$40 million (One EC dollar =US$0.37 cents) National Hospital that China said represented a new era in relations between the two countries.
China’s Ambassador to Dominica, Li Jiangning told the ground breaking ceremony that the new facility “will bring higher quality medical services to the community in the years to come.
The Chinese diplomat said the new hospital will be “one of the most complicated and challenging project to construct for both sides…thanks to the tremendous efforts put in by both sides”.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that the new facility should serve as an impetus for Dominicans to put aside their political differences and unite for the socio-economic development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
The construction of the hospital by a Chinese firm, forms part of the four-pillar projects agreed to in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two governments when they re-established diplomatic relations in 2004.
The new hospital is being built on the same site at the present Princess Margaret Hospital, at Goodwill, on the outskirts of the capital.
Skerrit told radio listeners that two buildings already constructed by China will continue as planned, but that the remaining nine buildings will be redesigned to include concrete roofs.
“So that it will eliminate the possibility of the roof being blown away in the event of a Hurricane. They have also agreed to review the windows and the doors. The windows will be able to withstand 150/160 mile winds…the hospital itself we can feel much safer,” Skerrit added.
It’s a shame all of this comes after Ross University School of Medicine has decided to move its campus from Dominica. Where was this idea in the 30-plus Years that a medical school occupied your country? It is absolutely ridiculous the entire government should be fired.