Sunday, January 10, 20102000-Bed Hospital For Cayman

Cayman Net NewsMemorandum of Understanding For 2,000-bed Hospital By 22 January

If recent efforts by the Cayman Islands government prove fruitful, medical tourism may soon become the “third leg” of the country’s economy, joining traditional tourism and financial services.

The government is negotiating with Dr Devi Shetty, one of India’s most famous heart surgeons, to build a healthcare facility here that will include a medical school. A signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is expected by 22 January 2010 between Dr Shetty and government officials.

In 2001, Dr Shetty built India’s largest private heart clinic with donations with 450 beds and 8 operating theatres. Through skillful management and mixed financing, he was able to reduce the price of the clinic, so that poor people also can afford treatment. For his work, Dr Shetty received the Schwab Foundation’s award for “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2005.

Calling the proposed investment one of the “most significant in decades,” the Premier, the Hon McKeeva Bush, said, “Our Government appreciates the display of confidence in the Cayman Islands economy by Dr Shetty and his colleagues,” but declined to provide further details of the negotiations.

Minister of Health, the Hon Mark Scotland, joined the Premier on a recent fact-finding trip overseas, along with a contingent of private and public sector representatives, attending the opening of one of Dr Shetty’s new cancer hospitals in Bangalore, India, a 500,000 square foot facility that is part of a larger complex of specialty-care hospitals known as “Narayana Health City.”

Mr Scotland said that he believed that the proposed facility could bring “great benefits” to the Cayman Islands, including lower costs to local patients, insurance companies and government, creating jobs, and establishing a new sector of the economy, since its services will attract patients from both North and South America.

Also on the trip to India were MLA Cline Glidden; Canover Watson, chairman of the Health Services Authority; and businessman Harry Chandi and Gene Thompson, a local developer, who said that a site for the medical facility has not yet been determined.

“At this point we are just waiting for the government to sign an agreement,” said Mr Thompson.

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