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Queen Elizabeth Hospital

The northern five-floor wing of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), will by March 2013, house a new Lion’s Caribbean Eye Care Centre, additional operating theatres and a cardiac suite.????????

This was disclosed last Friday during a media briefing by Project Manager at the QEH, Dean Eccleston, who noted that the project, financed in part by the European Development Fund to the tune of $5 million, as well as loan proceeds of $8M, included an air-condition refurbishment as well as the creation of a cardiac suite on the vacant first floor of the building.??

After being closed for some three years as a result of air-quality issues, the Hospital’s management made the decision to rebuild the air-condition system for that section of the building to provide an acceptable air-quality level.??

"Because of the size and complexity of the AC component it has been broken into two phases. The first phase involving the roof, third, second and first floors, and phase two would target the lower ground floor that the Accident and Emergency department currently occupies. That is currently occupied by clinic space and we would now have to look at the logistics to make that happen," he explained.

The floors will be handed over in phases, starting with the Eye Clinic.?? "We are planning to have that ready by the end of next month, for infrastructure to be ready… When the clinic actually uses the space will be determined on when it is in optimum condition for occupancy – when there is no odour from paint, no dust, that kind of thing. So, that is being delicately managed.?? And then by the end of the first quarter of next year, we are hoping to release the other sections.?? Specifically for the cardiac suite, by the fourth quarter of the financial year which is up to March next year," he clarified.??

The third floor will be mainly used to house the operating theatres; ophthalmology will be on the second floor and the Cardiac Suite, which is being outfitted with partitions, services, and equipment to make it functional, will occupy the first floor. The ground floor will be used for the Outpatient Clinic and the Accident and Emergency department will remain in its position on the lower ground floor level.

lisa.bayley@barbados.gov.bb

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