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Last week, the Cayman Islands Department of Planning provided approval to Health City Cayman Islands for the commencement of the clearing of land at the site of its planned $100 million medical campus expansion at Camana Bay.

Mr Shomari Scott, Chief Business Officer at Health City Cayman Islands said the organization was excited to see this first step forward in the progress towards the construction of a comprehensive, highly specialized hospital that will reduce and, in some cases, eliminate the need for traveling off island to receive the highest quality care.

“Our plans for the new facility are progressing and we look forward to helping close healthcare accessibility gaps, and providing robust healthcare security, to radically improve medical outcomes for the people of the Cayman Islands,” he said.

Health City Camana Bay will be located to the south of Cayman International School, at the intersection of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway and the new Airport Connector Road.

The state-of-the-art Camana Bay medical campus will become the first hospital in the region to offer bone marrow transplantation and CAR-T Cell therapy. The advanced oncology department will include medical oncology, hemato-oncology, surgical oncology and radiation oncology with a medical linear accelerator (LINAC).

“The standard for high GPD countries is one linear accelerator per 183,000 population, and we are happy to make this investment with a population of only 65,000 in order to provide for our local patients as well for our surrounding Caribbean neighbors,” Mr Scott said.

Dr Binoy Chattuparambil, Clinical Director and Senior Cardiac Surgeon at Health City Cayman Islands, said the hospital’s radiotherapy services would be available within nine months of the ground-breaking with the completion of the rest of the facility and a full suite of services following a few months later.

“We estimate the full 70,000 square foot expansion to take 12 to 18 months to complete,” he said. “The hospital will include a specialised neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a service that will be of great benefit to Cayman and the wider Caribbean.”

“Having a premature baby or a baby that requires care in a NICU is very difficult for families. If their home is far from that NICU, the challenges of separation and travel begin at birth. The cost of travel and time away from work for parents is especially burdensome and is really the last thing parents in an already difficult situation need to be worrying about,” Dr Binoy said. “The NICU at our Camana Bay campus will mean babies and families can stay together and focus on what is most important – positive outcomes for these newborns.”

Health City has already established a footprint in Camana Bay with the opening of its clinic early in May.

“We are really pleased with the welcome our Camana Bay clinic has received from our patients – new and existing. We’ve had great feedback from patients on the short wait times, extended opening hours and the ability to see our world class doctors closer to where our patients live and work,” Mr Scott said.

The clearing and filling work at the Camana Bay site will commence 22 June 2021.