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Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre has announced that construction work on the original St. Jude Hospital will begin in November this year.
“The first phase of the construction will be the fencing of the original site and external exterior works,” Pierre told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Cabinet.
The Castries East MP disclosed that ‘full construction’ of the remaining buildings will continue in the new year.
He expressed confidence that the reconstruction on the original site would be a relief to Saint Lucians and the people of the South.
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“We are in the process. As I said I always want to comment when I get (it) from the experts,” was Pierre’s response when asked about the project cost.
“Right now the costing is at the Ministry of Infrastructure. Until they verify it I am not going to say anything,” he told reporters.
And regarding a project timeline, Pierre repeated that construction would start on the external part in November this year.
He recalled that after the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) won July 26, 2021, general elections, the party indicated that its first order of business would have been St. Jude Hospital.
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Cabinet then appointed a committee that included architects, engineers and medical personnel to advise on the way forward.
According to the Prime Minister, the report indicated that it would be folly to continue work on the new building which was only 30 percent complete and on which over $100 million had been spent.
“If it had been completed it would only be one floor. So it didn’t make any sense to have a hospital on one floor and construction works going on on the other floor,” he stated.
And Pierre explained that the time would come when there would be ‘full ventilation’ of the facts regarding St Jude in the public domain.
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