Construction on the St. John Polyclinic is expected to restart in the New Year.

Minister of Health, John Boyce, made the disclosure last Friday at a Press briefing following a tour of some of the Ministry of Health???s facilities in the Jemmotts Lane, St. Michael area.

Work has halted on the 27,000 square foot multipurpose facility due to financial difficulties.

???The construction of the St. John Polyclinic will be a priority. We have to go back to Parliament for a supplementary to complete the works. The objective is to get that sorted out before we rise at Christmas at Parliament and in January work will continue in earnest so we can have that polyclinic rolled out,??? the Health Minister stated.

He added: ???This is a beautiful primary health care intervention and we as a Government are committed to ensuring that this polyclinic is opened early now in 2014. Like so many things, it has had its difficulties in terms of financing and planning but so many construction sites now suffer from these realities both in the public and private sector.???

The state-of-the-art facility will provide a wide range of primary health care services, including mental health, physiotherapy, family planning, an asthma bay, an x-ray/ultrasound department, pharmacy services, post and ante-natal care, and as part of the plan to decentralise health care, an ambulance bay for a vehicle which will be stationed at the facility.

It will embrace the latest in technology and will eventually boast an electronic patient records system. When completed, the facility will be named after late Prime Minister and former Member of Parliament for St. John, David Thompson.

melissa.rollock@barbados.gov.bb

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