Latest updates from Oasis Land and The Cayman Islands

$121 Million Camana Bay Health City Expansion

A new $121 million Health City will be built in Camana Bay becoming the first hospital in the region to offer bone marrow transplantation and CAR-T Cell cancer therapy. Serving the local community as well as looking to attract international patients from the wider Caribbean, Canada and the USA.

The new hospital, which Health City’s Clinical Director Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil said is expected to be completed within two years, will be located south of the Cayman International School, near the intersection of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway and the new Airport Connector Road, on a 70,000-square-foot site.

The project will include a satellite cancer-care clinic based in Cayman Brac.

Chattuparambil, speaking at a press briefing to announce the new 70-bed Health City Camana Bay hospital on Friday, said having a medical facility located close to George Town and Cayman’s other hospitals, would greatly improve the outcome for any newborn needing medical care. He added that the importance of providing emergency and critical services at the new Camana Bay hospital “cannot be overstated”.

“There have been many instances of lives lost between George Town and a trip to East End – a trip that does not seem far when visiting a friend on a Sunday but when a loved one has had a heart attack, stroke or been involved in life-threatening trauma, seconds and minutes count,” he said.

CAR-T Cell cancer therapy is a type of treatment in which a patient’s T cells (a type of immune system cell) are changed in the laboratory so they will attack cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapy is used to treat certain blood cancers, and it is being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer.

With the Cayman Health City having provided medical care for Cayman Islands residents for seven years this new Camana Bay campus is an expansion of its facilities, with the construction of a KY$100 million medical campus at Camana Bay. The investment has been brought forward to counter competition from the planned Aster Cayman MedCity.

The advanced oncology department will also include medical oncology, haemato-oncology, surgical oncology and radiation oncology. The hospital will include a multi-specialty programme that includes robotic surgery, a neonatal intensive care unit, emergency pavilion and critical care.

Health City Camana Bay is targeted more at locals than medical tourists but will cater for the Caribbean region. Health City already has an outpatient clinic for domestic medical tourism offering outpatient care and surgical follow-up care. The facility does not function as a general practice clinic, but offers outpatient consultations for a range of specialised medical services, including cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics, medical oncology, gastroenterology, gynaecology and urology.

Health City Cayman Islands is not requesting any additional concessions outside of its original agreement with the Cayman Islands government, and the services the expansion will provide continue to fall within the scope of the previously planned phases.

A top Cayman Islands’ private investor, Dart, is providing finance for the 24-month expansion project, where landfill is under remediation and new road infrastructure is being built. The facility is estimated to take 12 to 18 months to complete.

During construction of the new medical campus, Health City Cayman Islands will open a smaller, satellite location within Camana Bay, for which it has already earmarked clinical space. This space will be integrated within the larger proposed facility when it is complete.

As part of its commitment to the Cayman Islands, Health City is also intending to increase its presence with the opening of an office in Cayman Brac. Health City physicians will provide accessible specialist healthcare and alleviate the need for patients to travel to Grand Cayman for outpatient follow ups and check-ups. There will be a satellite clinic established in Cayman Brac for chemotherapy and other services that would reduce the need for travel when there is no need for surgery or major diagnostics.

In November 2019, Health City broke ground on what would have been the Caribbean’s first cancer treatment centre at Health City’s original campus at East End. This project will now be relocated to the Camana Bay location.

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