WILL ST JOSEPH HOSPITAL become a medical school, a health tourism project, or a facility for foreign and local use?

These are some of the options which are on the table for consideration by the Thompson Administration. But whatever the final decision, what's clear, says David Thompson, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, it's not going to sit in St Peter and deteriorate any more.

Speaking to the SATURDAY SUN recently while in New York City to receive the University Legacy Award from the American Foundation for the University of the West Indies, Thompson said:

"We are certainly not going to let it sit down and rot over the next two-and-a-half years. We are going to make sure that something is decided in relation to the old St Joseph Hospital."

Asked about the complex's future after it has been used for close to two decades, the Prime Minister said that the Government had "offers for a variety of things, health-related tourism projects, medical school projects" and so on.

As Thompson explained, the Government, especially Minister of Health Donville Inniss, believed the future of the St Joseph facility wasn't simply "a health issue" but an "investment issue" as well.

"Therefore, between Investment Barbados, the Ministry of Investment, Ministry of Health, the alternative uses of St Joseph Hospital will be pursued," the Prime Minister said. "The Government has just commenced an engineering report and that should assist making available to prospective and interested investors information on the state of existing building." (TB)