At
a small ceremony held on the original St Judes ground at about 11:00 am on
Tuesday, November 1, 2022, the prime Minister along with Minister Stephenson
King, Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Health, Jenny Daniel, together with the chairman of the St Judes’
Board of Directors, Norman Edward and Edison Henry, Program Coordinator in
Department of Economic Development, all gave short remarks to mark the official
commencement of work on the St Judes’ Hospital to a small audience of about 60
persons.
Also
in attendance were Minister Emma Hippolyte, Minister Ernest Hilaire, Minister Alva
Jn Baptiste, the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon
Belmar-George, Senator Ferdinand, and other dignitaries.
Taking into consideration the competence of Mr. Rayneau Gajadhar’s Construction and Industrial Equipment (CIE) Ltd, and most likely his expertise after just completing a major hospital in Dominica, the present Government has contracted the company to bring this dragging nightmare to a close. “I must tell the contractor that we’ve [Government of Saint Lucia] placed great confidence in him because of his track record; the contractor just completed a hospital in Dominica…..’ Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre remarked.
Joshi, CIE’s engineer on site gave the small audience a brief synopsis of what works will be undertaken in the initial stages, he concluded his short but concise remark with, “ It is a moment for us to be very proud as a St Lucian company we will do our best to provide the best quality so that everyone will be happy.
“The
management of this project is going to be different. No one man or two men are
going to be in charge – professionals are going to be in charge, and it’s going
to be a collaboration between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of
Infrastructure, and the Ministry of Economic Development…. We are going to be
guided strictly by the professionals, says the Prime Minister.”
He
continued, “We trusted the science and we allowed independent people to do the
assessment for us, and I can assure you that not one of my colleagues
interfered with the assessment being
done by this committee, and they came to the conclusion that we were to return
to the original site and continue with the reconstruction….”
In his brief remarks, King mentioned the importance of completing the hospital for the people of the south, He concluded with this statement.“…..I believe we have a good team in place – the contractor who has performed not only in Saint Lucia but throughout the OECS and I am confident that our team of Saint Lucian team of contractors, sub-contractors, etc., will complete this hospital….."
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