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Officials sign pact for construction of Portmore hospital
Published: Wednesday | May 27, 2009
Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter
Mayor of Portmore Keith Hinds. - File
Representatives from CayJam Developments Limited and Kier Construction Limited on Monday put ink to paper to solidify an agreement for the construction of a multimillion-dollar private hospital and medical campus in the municipality of Portmore, St Catherine.
The much-talked-about hospital has been in the making for close to four years, but Portmore Mayor Keith Hinds said Monday's signing was a signal that it would soon become a reality.
Howard Peterson, CEO of CayJam Developments, a property development company incor-porated in The Cayman Islands, told The Gleaner during a signing ceremony at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston that groundbreaking for the Newland/ Garveymeade property would take place within another 30 days or so and construction was expected to commence as early as September.
International development com-pany Kier Ltd is expected to complete construction of the 104-acre multi-facility medical structure by June 2011. This is to be done in three key stages, which include the construction of a 120-room state-of-the-art private hospital by February 2011.
The property will also have a medical campus, which is expected to be completed by April of that year and an additional 200 three-bedroom housing facility, which will eventually serve as accom-modation for some 3,000 medical students. Peterson further said the property would be built around a five-acre man-made lake within the gated hospital complex.
International accreditation
He said additional work on general infrastructure, such as road and drain improvement, would take the project up to about June 2011. The first phase of the development is expected to cost close to $7 billion (US$80 million).
Peterson added that the multi-speciality tertiary hospital would feature the state-of-the-art medical equipment and information technology systems and would have international accreditation.
The CayJam Developments CEO said jobs would be created for Jamaicans during the construction phase, as well as after completion.
Hinds said construction of the hospital would change the face of the entire Portmore community, which is now home to more than 300,000 Jamaicans throughout some 68 communities.
Significant milestone
"It's a long-talked-about project, but today this signing represents a significant milestone," he said.
Winston Adams, executive chairman and president of the University College of the Carib-bean, said the institution has entered into a partnership with CayJam Developments to operate the medical campus after construction.
"We will be training nurses for local consumption and also for export to North America and Europe," he informed.
Adams said that while medical education will be the main focus, the school will also be offering programmes in business and information technology up to the master's level.
).. but one unable to complete university, bereft of publications... but a loud spouter of partisan claptrap... at least 2 of those 3 characteristics apply to you... the third i'm unsure about.
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