Phase one of the proposed Shetty medical centre. – Image: Submitted
Developers of the proposed Shetty medical tourism hospital have hired local company Clan Construction to be the general contractor on the project.
Clan Construction will supervise and build the first phase of the Narayana Cayman University Medical Centre, the official name for Dr. Devi Shetty’s health care city, on 50 acres of land in High Rock in East End. It is estimated that as many as 300 construction workers would be employed at peak construction period of phase one of the project, which consists of a 140-bed hospital.
Ground breaking is expected in August.
Project director Gene Thompson said a design/build agreement had been signed with Clan Construction, owned by Neil Armstrong. DeAngelis Diamond Health Care Group of Naples, Florida, which provides specialty services for construction of state-of-the-art hospitals and health care facilities, will assist with the project, Mr. Thompson said.
Mr. Armstrong said his firm would employ “as many Caymanians as possible” on the site and that preference would be given to both local subcontractors and local suppliers of equipment and materials.
Providing employment and benefits to Caymanians was a “requirement” that had been stressed to Clan Construction during the contract negotiations, Mr. Armstrong said.
“Mr. Thompson has indicated that we will be on an extremely aggressive construction timeline,” Mr. Armstrong said, “and we are prepared to staff up and begin work once the preliminary site preparation work has been completed.”
The hospital is expected to open to its first patients in September or October 2013.
Future phases will include an expansion of the hospital facility, an assisted-care community, a medical university, and a biotech park.
The Shetty group bought 50 acres of land in a 600-acre site from landowner Joe Imparato in High Rock in December 2011. Imparato’s City Services (Cayman) Ltd. will be a co-developer of the project, working with the Shetty group to develop support facilities, such as hotel and residential accommodation.
According to the developers, phase one of the project will be built using Insulating Concrete Forms blocks and the building will be constructed to withstand hurricanes and have full standby power and water. The first building will be a two-storey, low-density structure oriented to take advantage of the trade winds and the sun, the developers said.
Start dates for the project have been moved several times since it was first announced at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Cayman Islands government and Indian cardiologist Dr. Shetty in April 2010.
A number of Cayman’s laws were amended or created, as stipulated by the memorandum of understanding, including the Health Practice Law, which enables medical staff trained in India and other overseas countries to practise in Cayman; the Tax Concessions (Amendment) Law, which exempts companies from potential future taxes and the Medical Negligence (Non-Economic Damages) (Amendment) Law, which caps pain and suffering damages awarded in medical malpractice cases to $500,000. Regulations associated to some of those laws are still being drafted.
A final piece of legislation, which would allow human organ and tissue donations and transplants to be done in Cayman, has not yet been presented to the Legislative Assembly.
source: http://www.CompassCayman.com / by Norma Connolly / norma@cfp.ky / March 20th, 2012
