by MICHELLE SPRINGER

MINISTER OF HEALTH, Dr Jerome Walcott, recently announced Government's plan to complete the abandoned St John Polyclinic at a cost of $5 million over two years.

The health care centre was initially part of the Democratic Labour Party's 1988-1993 Development Plan, but construction was halted in 1992.

Starliner, a Rastafarian from the House Of Joseph, uses the forsaken structure as his home and gave a guided tour of the concrete shell to the SUNDAY SUN.

"Once before it was St John's Infirmary. Women used to deliver babies there and there are several elderly people in the area who would have need for it," he said.

Starliner, himself born in the original facility added: "It would ease the stress from people going down to St George [The Glebe Polyclinic] particularly during the heavy rains when the St John Outpatient Clinic down in Gall Hill gets flooded out."

It's about the people's needs not politics, the Rastafarian declared.

A small group, however, gathered shouting their anger over what they deemed to be false promises on the part of the Minister of Health.

Ernesta Howell, 67, who has been living there for over 25 years does not think that Government's claim is bona fide.

"The Minister [of Health] could say anything, he wants a vote," she said.

"They know that up here in St John is a Democratic place. I am not vexed with Mr Arthur [Prime Minister Owen Arthur] for trying to get a vote because you have to fight for what you want, but they are not going to finish it. . . ."

Why didn't they do it before? She wanted to know.Why wait until election time is brewing? she asked.

St Clair McCollin said: "It should have been finished years ago . . . the Government behaving that the polyclinic belongs to [David] Thompson and that's why they're not finishing it. But it doesn't belong to Thompson or the Prime Minister; out here belong to the people of Barbados . . . ."

Rosemary Richards-Smith, 43, also a resident and employee in the area was more expectant. "The minister has the say on it so I really hope that they [Government] do it. They start from 1991 and the Outpatient Clinic not really serving the people. The ones in St George and St Philip don't have nothing to do with us."

Her cousin Roseann Richards, a mother of four, echoed those sentiments.

The Minister said last Saturday the completion of the polyclinic was all part of a larger multi-pronged approach to upgrading health care delivery to all Barbadians. He said all existing polyclinics would be expanded and their services upgraded.

Shadow Minister of Health Richard Sealy told the Press last week that these plans to complete the St John Polyclinic and build a new $700 million hospital were but mere "attempts to catch votes".

Opposition Leader David Thompson, who was out of the island at the time of Walcott's declaration, said yesterday that there were several elderly people living in the area for whom transportation and mobility were problematic, The Glebe Polyclinic in St George and Randall Polyclinic in St Philip were too far a distance, he said.

He also added the smaller St John Outpatient Clinic was inappropriate for St John residents and was in a "deplorable condition".

That clinic was closed in November last year because of a potentially dangerous fungus aspergillus niger that was found thriving there.

It has subsequently been reopened.