Health Minister: “This Is the Future of Grand Bahama”

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GRAND BAHAMA, BAHAMAS – A major healthcare project in Grand Bahama is moving forward after facing delays that slowed its early progress.

Dr. Michael Darville – Health Minister

“This is the future for Grand Bahama and a new footprint for tertiary health care on the island.”

Those strong words coming from Health Minister Dr. Michael Darville as he toured a new $200 million healthcare facility in Grand Bahama on Friday.

The new Freeport healthcare campus is being built on 50 acres of land, and is expected to provide much needed healthcare services for residents in Grand Bahama and the Northern Bahamas.

The project is being developed in phases by The Beck Group, with phase 1A and 1B expected to be completed before the summer of 2027.

While the full development will eventually include a multi-story hospital, the first phases are expected to deliver outpatient and urgent care services.

Dr. Darville provides this update on the project to reporters.

Dr. Michael Darville – Health Minister

“As you can see behind us, we are now pouring the roof, and once that’s completed and the whole site is sealed in, then we will begin now to do some of the work inside the structure.”

The project has also grown in size.

Darville says phase one initially started at about 62,000 square feet, but has now expanded to roughly 80,000 square feet with additional space in the basement.

That space is expected to serve a dual purpose, as a hurricane shelter and also as the home of the PHA Academy, where the bulk of training will take place.

However, getting to this point has not been without challenges.

Construction faced structural delays and funding hiccups, with difficulties securing the capital needed upfront to maintain the project’s aggressive construction timeline.

Darville says those issues have now been addressed.

Dr. Michael Darville – Health Minister

“All of the long lead items have now been purchased by way of the CIBC loan, and so we feel comfortable now that some of the items that takes weeks to produce will be at site, and we will be in the necessary installation and hopefully, at the end of the day, accomplish this project that had some challenges in our first terminal.”

Darville says once the campus is completed, it will eventually transition from its initial purpose as an urgent care facility into an emergency care facility, as construction begins on the multi-story hospital that will house patients.

As for the Rand Memorial Hospital, the islands premiere healthcare facility, Darville says “…we outgrew that almost 15 to 20 years ago. It obviously cannot handle the capacity and the demand from the community, and that’s the reason why we needed to move into a new greenfield space.”