Compass Point - Healthcare: Shetty medical centre requires upgrades to CI infrastructure
Caymanian Compass, November 10, 2011
The ultimate vision for Dr. Devi Shetty’s proposed medical tourism development involves the creation of a massive health care city on 600 acres in East End, comprising a 2,000-bed hospital, a medical educational facility and assisted living homes for seniors. Accommodating a project of this magnitude will require significant improvements to Grand Cayman’s infrastructure, in areas including transportation, housing and public services.
“Once we have a facility of 2,000 beds everything has to change in this country. The current infrastructure won’t sustain that,” Dr. Shetty said in late 2010.
However, major infrastructure upgrades should not be necessary in order to realise the first phase of the 15-year project, consisting of a 140-bed hospital. Infrastructure requirements will be taken into account by government agencies as developers seek planning approval for each phase of the project.
Medical centre magnitude
Apart from the footprint of the actual Narayana Cayman University Medical Centre, the greatest stressor on Cayman’s infrastructure will be the sheer volume of people going to and from and residing at the medical centre. The hospital is expected to cater to 120 patients per day in its first year of operation and eventually expand to 1,400 per day when fully operational. Patients would stay on Island an average of nine and a half days.
Additionally, Dr. Shetty envisions the assisted living component of the medical centre to eventually grow far beyond the 1,500 units approved by Government. “We need to have at least 10,000 people living in this city in this assisted living facility,” he said.
Put in context, Grand Cayman currently has the 124-bed Cayman Islands Hospital and 18-bed Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital. Just the initial 140-bed Shetty hospital would double the number of hospital beds on Island. Once the 2,000-bed hospital is completed, Grand Cayman would have more than 14 times the number of hospital beds it currently has.
In April 2010, Premier McKeeva Bush said in 2013 some 87,600 patients and visitors (i.e. accompanying family members) would arrive in Grand Cayman because of the medical centre, and by 2025 the number of stay-over medical tourists would increase to 1.051 million per year.
In 2010, about 288,000 tourists arrived in Cayman by air. In 2009, the number of tourist air arrivals was 272,000. According to Mr. Bush’s projections, the medical centre would lead to a 30 per cent increase in tourist air arrivals in 2013 (compared to 2010) and a 365 per cent increase in 2025 (compared to 2010).
Mr. Bush also said the completed medical centre would necessitate the addition of 10,000 new hotel rooms. As of fall 2010, Cayman had just over 2,000 hotel rooms and just under 2,600 rooms in smaller developments (apartments, cottages and guest houses) to accommodate tourists. That means the medical centre would lead to a 500 per cent increase in the number of hotel rooms, or a 220 per cent increase in the total number of rooms available for tourists.
Infrastructure upgrades
People involved with the medical centre say the development’s phased approach will allow the development to progress without infrastructure upgrades being immediately required.
David R. Legge, spokesman for the project, said, “The existing infrastructure, meaning the road system, even the airport, and what you think of utilities, are sufficient and will be so for the first three to five years of the project. The reason for that is the project starts out rather modestly.”
Narayana group local director Gene Thompson said in August, “We have had initial discussions with all of the utility providers and appraised them of the situation and there did not appear to be significant challenges.”
In August, Mr. Bush said the government intended to go ahead as planned to build an east-west road corridor from George Town to East End once Cayman has the funding, but “not right now”. He said medical centre developers would have to pay for and build their own feeder roads to the site, just like any other developer.
Government has also agreed to upgrade Owen Roberts Airport to handle the proposed number of medical tourist arrivals. The airport expansion is a pre-existing government initiative. Under the project development plans, this would be required in four to five years.
Tania Johnson, Public Education and Promotions Officer for the Department of Environmental Health, said waste management is an area on which government officials would work with developers as they go through the planning process to build the medical centre.
The department has a bio-hazardous waste collector that handles the Island’s medical waste, which is incinerated and disposed of at a designated site at the George Town landfill.
“He has a special truck and he goes around to all the different doctors’ offices and medical facilities and collects the waste. What happens is its carried to the landfill and we have special incinerator for the medical waste,” Ms Johnson said. “Its incinerated either once or twice a week depending on the amount. Any ash that’s left over is disposed of at a special site.”
Ms Johnson said the incinerator is not operating at full capacity. The impact of new medical waste generated by the Shetty hospital would be evaluated during the planning application process. If existing solid waste facilities are not sufficient, then arrangements would be made by either government or the developer, presumably.
The Dart Group and government have an agreement to close the George Town landfill and open a new waste management facility in Bodden Town. The new facility will also include a medical waste incinerator.
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