By Kayra Williams

It had been left to public speculation what would become of the multi million dollar medical facility; a top of the line psychiatric hospital—an initiative by the previous St Lucia Labour Party administration, through a partnership with the Chinese Government.

The change of government on December 11, 2006 also brought about a change in St Lucia’s partnership with China. In April 2007, after almost a decade with China, ties were severed and the UWP government renewed diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Construction of the mental hospital had been at a stand still for months but a team of engineers along with ministry officials on Monday, October 22, paid a visit to the site of the mental hospital to do a complete analysis on the building.

The analysis was not to determine whether the Taiwanese would assist the government with the completion of the project. According to Tom Chou, no matter how bad the situation was, the Taiwanese government was going to help the St Lucian government. Health minister Keith Mondesir, said that the engineers had come to analyze what was left to be done.

 “The Taiwanese are going to complete everything that is to be done here,” he said. “They want to take a firsthand look with regard to the extent of each aspect of the building from electricity to construction. Then they are going to assist, with local contractors, to finish institution.” Mondesir said that even before construction had begun, the previous administration had been informed that there were some problems with the ground in terms of land slippage.

 “Eventually these buildings will slide and you’ll find them crashing down to the bottom. I understood that information was given to the Labour party that this wasn’t the best site,” he said. He went on to say that for the buildings to be preserved, massive retaining walls would have to be built. Walls that would come with a price tag in excess of a million dollars.

New plans include the relocation of Victoria hospital to the site of the new mental hospital. According to Mondesir, these plans make the retaining walls even more vital. “These walls must be done before you can go and put the hospital in there. That is what these experts came down to do, we will address all these problems.” Neither a completion time or start off date could be specified but the minister guaranteed that after the team had completed their analysis, further steps would be taken to bring the mental facility closer to actual completion.

 “When we know how much work has to be done, then we’ll be able to estimate the time frame to complete it,” he said. “The Taiwanese are committed to doing it, that’s why they’re here.” The health minister guaranteed that local contractors and construction workers would be involved in the project. Taiwanese ambassador, Tom Chou expressed concern that the project that had been estimated to be 85 percent complete, appeared no where close to that amount.

“When the Chinese left St Lucia, they said they’d completed 85 percent of the project but my first impression was that it’s far less than 85 percent,” said Chou. “That is why we needed some experts to make a more accurate assessment to know what our next step will be.”  “We want to know what is the real progress and what the problems are with this building. Chou was also concerned about the pollution around the site; the scattered building materials and even toxic lead material that polluted the area.

According to experts, the lead, a toxic material, was likely used by the Chinese to mix cement to build the x ray room but if not disposed properly, could have a negative impact on the environment and be poisonous to human and wild life. “This should have been discarded in the proper manner, the toxic material will pollute the environment, create a health hazard for local residents, it’s appalling!” said an obviously disgusted Tom Chou. 

 “They can’t leave this material here, they need to have a special place to keep it from accessibility of people,” said one engineer. “They’re not even empty!” With the mixed messages that have being received by the general public, many question the commitment of the Taiwanese government and wonder whether the psychiatric hospital will ever be completed. 

“When our government commits itself to helping complete this project, we’re going to honor our commitment, but before we do so, we have to know what’s going on this project. We’re very serious, that’s why two experts flew all the way from Taiwan to St Lucia; we had a very strong confidence we will finish this building to international standards.

A team from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are expected to pay visits to the site before and during construction of the hospital resumes to make sure the hospital maintains an international standard. They’ll be coming down to look also, when we start it, if we have any altercations to do, they will tell us what to do to make sure everything is right on board,” said Mondesir. “At the end of the day we will end up with a destination that is world class and acceptable in the international health arena.”