Health City Cayman Islands and Dart will build a US$100 million 70-bed hospital in Camana Bay. The facility will strengthen the healthcare security of the Cayman Islands while it also provides a draw for medical tourists and second-home buyers from abroad.
At the new medical campus, specialist cancer care and neo-natal intensive care will be offered as well as bone marrow transplantation, CAR-T cell treatment, a maternity unit and pre-natal services, robotic surgery, and emergency services and critical care.
Completion of the new 70,000 square-foot medical campus is expected to take place within two years. The hospital will be located south of the Cayman International School, where the Esterley Tibbetts Highway and the new Airport Connector Road intersect. The expansion project includes a smaller satellite cancer-care facility in Cayman Brac, where patients can receive chemotherapy and schedule consultations with specialists
Health City Clinical Director Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil spoke at a press briefing on Friday and pointed out that the proximity of the new hospital to George Town and the other hospitals on Cayman has the potential to improve outcomes for newborns who need medical care as well as anyone in need of time-sensitive emergency or critical care services. As well, the new hospital in Camana Bay means that a healthcare facility will be located near where many residents of the island live and work. Though Health City broke ground at its site in the East End in 2019 with the intention to build a cancer-care centre, work on the project has stopped as plans for the new hospital in Camana Bay will house the specialist cancer facility.
The new Health City expansion will offer specialist care to cancer patients and neo-natal patients, both of which were previously identified as much-needed key healthcare areas in the Cayman Islands.
The announcement of the Health City expansion project follows the press conference by Gene Thompson and Aster DM Healthcare that announced the plans for a new $350 million hospital. Less than two months ago, with government officials, Thompson, who was involved in the first Health City project, described the plans for a 500-bed facility to be built in an as-yet unknown location.
If both facilities are built, they will bring the number of hospitals in Grand Cayman up to five, which means that residents will have greater access to local medical services. Instead of travelling overseas for care, Caymanians will be able to seek care at either of the two Health City hospitals, Aster Cayman Medcity, Doctors Hospital, or the Health Services Authority’s Cayman Islands Hospital.
At the press briefing on Friday, Premier Alden McLaughlin celebrated the announcement of Health City Camana Bay, noting that residents and tourists alike will benefit from the availability of more healthcare choices.
The critical care services at Health City Camana Bay will have resources like instant life support, involving an artificial heart and lungs. The presence of a conveniently-located critical care department will enable both adults and children to receive high-quality emergency care as quickly as possible.
As well, any concessions and duty waivers for Health City previously established will apply to the new hospital, which will ideally encourage medical tourism patients from the other islands in the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada to travel to Cayman for medical care. As well, the availability of robust healthcare services in Cayman may also be attractive to potential overseas buyers of second homes in the Cayman Islands.
The partnership between Dart and Health City is observable in the name of the facility, which is Health City Camana Bay. Some discussions over the land on which the new medical facility will stand and the contractors to be employed to build the medical campus have already taken place.
The contractors Arch & Godfrey will build the structures that will house the radiotherapy department of the new hospital. Dart’s construction firm, Decco, may also be involved in the building works at various stages. In 2017, a consortium led by Decco was announced as the preferred bidder on a waste-management project at the George Town landfill near the site of the proposed hospital, but no final deal has been made regarding the plan for the new waste-management system.
