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Govt. may drop hospital plan

A plan to rebuild King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in the Botanical Gardens is not a fait accompli and the door has been left open for a possible u-turn, Premier Alex Scott revealed last night.

But that will only happen if it is proven that the people of Bermuda are resolutely opposed to the building of the new hospital in the centre of the park as was announced at the end of August, he said.

In an effort to show Government is serious about public consultation, Mr. Scott announced at a sustainable development meeting last night that the decision to go with the Botanical Gardens option could be reversed.

But he said he was banking on people reaching the same conclusion as the Cabinet and the Bermuda Hospitals Board, which is to go with the choice of a rebuilt hospital on ten acres of the Botanical Gardens at a cost of $500 million during the next seven years.

He has been swayed by Health Minister Patrice Minors, who had told him that people initially opposed to the Botanical Gardens scheme had changed their minds and accepted it as the best choice after being shown full information on costs, the extra time-lag and complications associated with rebuilding the hospital at its present site.

By giving full disclosure of the the same information to the public ? which may occur at a series of three meetings planned for Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week ? Mr. Scott and his Government believe the groundswell of opposition to the Botanical Gardens option will diminish. If that is not the case, the alternative will be to scrap the plan and rebuild on the current site.

?We have not put a spade in the ground. No plans have been drawn up and we will listen to the public once they have all the information before them,? pledged the Premier.

It was at the beginning of the final Sustainable Development Draft Plan public meeting held in St. Paul AME church hall yesterday evening that Mr. Scott revealed Government?s position in light of the ongoing public debate about the hospital plan.

He said he had met with Mrs. Minors, Environment Minister Randy Horton and chairman of the Bermuda Hospitals Board Anthony Richardson to discuss the issue.

?During that discussion we agreed to expand the focus and the process of public consultation regarding the site of the new hospital,? he said. ?The Health Minister will share more details about this later this week, but what is important to know at this point is that the BHB intends to share all information with the public that led to the decision to utilise the Botanical Gardens as the site for the new hospital.

?They will also share information regarding the costs of building on the present site and information related to the health issues surrounding building on that site.

?This will include a comparative analysis between the two options so that the public has all the information it needs to intelligently weight in on the issue.?

The Premier said Mrs. Minors would make ?a significant statement? within the coming days on the issue.

Debate has been sparked on the issue of whether to build on a new site in the Botanical Gardens or rebuild on the current KEMH site, the second option is likely to cost $100 million more and take longer to achieve.

Mr. Scott said: ?We now invite the community to hear all the facts and figures that were given to the BHB.

?When this information has been presented to people they rethink the $100m more and the extra time and they seem to move to the position the BHB has taken.

?Let the folks have that information. As a country we may do something else. We may say that $100 million extra is warranted or not.

?The public may say that two or three years longer to build the hospital is warranted once all things are considered. This Government will listen.?