Hospital project will not be built on government land

(CNS): The proposed development of a health city in the Cayman Islands by Dr Devi Shetty will be an entirely private project, a spokesperson for the organisation has confirmed. Despite reports in The Times of India that the Cayman Islands government has offered the pioneering cardiac surgeon a 100-acre plot on which to construction his medical facility, David Legge, who is speaking for the organisation in Cayman, said this was not the case as a plot has not yet been identified for the project. Legge said the report’s suggestion that Cayman Airways would be offering low cost flights to potential patients was premature as no agreement has yet been negotiated.

 He added that the project was still in the early stages and there were several issues still to address. Above all, he said, it was not a public-private partnership with government but was an entirely private sector project. The project director in Cayman is Gene Thompson, and while government is supporting the initiative, it will not be investing money or land.

In an interview with the Indian daily, however, Dr Shetty said that construction on the city was due to start before June 2010, and within a year the hospital would be commissioning 200 to 300 beds.

"Initially, we will start with cardiac services and then move on to orthopaedic, organ transplants, neurology and others.” Dr Shetty told the paper. “We will have 500 beds first and then scale it up to 2,000 beds. There will be a medical college, a hospital and a lot of academic activities.” The doctor also stated that he had made a presentation to the Cayman Island parliament, “after which they invited us to set this up. ..(the) Cayman Islands’ PM will be in Bangalore on December 17 to inaugurate the cancer hospital," Dr Shetty added.

So far, neither Premier McKeeva Bush nor Health Minister Mark Scotland has made any official comment regarding the project, but CNS has submitted a number of questions to the ministry and is awaiting a response.

The initiative, which was first announced last week, is intended to offer low cost health care to patients from North America and offer the Cayman Islands the chance to develop medical tourism as a third arm of its economy.

Go to The Times of India article