Drew condemns opposition over hospital criticism as MRI deadlines keep slipping
The Prime Minister accused critics of playing politics with the JNF hospital, but the MRI service first promised for early 2025 is still not running.
BASSETERRE, St Kitts. Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew has accused the opposition of misrepresenting progress at the Joseph N. France General Hospital, even as one of his health ministry's flagship promises, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service, remains unfinished nearly two years after its first target date.
Speaking at his Roundtable on 5 November, Dr Drew, who is also Minister of Health, said some critics had made irresponsible statements about the hospital. According to SKNIS, he accused the opposition of trying to use the hospital "as some sort of political fodder".
He listed what the government says it has delivered since 2022: five new ambulances costing $1.7 million, repairs to the leaking hospital roof, a reopened private ward, a new CT scanner, digital records in the accident and emergency department and a first echocardiogram service. The government says the hospital now has a record 26 specialists.
A moving target
The MRI centre is the clearest test of those claims. In October 2024 Dr Drew said the unit would be completed and the machine installed "within a few months", and the Ministry of Health set a target of the first quarter of 2025.
A year later, in October 2025, the government said the machine itself was expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2026. The government's online project tracker gives a target date of 12 August 2026 and lists the project as 80% complete.
In the latest SKNIS account of his remarks, published on 9 November, the MRI machine is described only as due to be installed and commissioned at some point in the months ahead. No firm date was given, and none of the government statements reviewed by SKN Daily states what the MRI facility has cost.
Dr Drew, a medical doctor, said that while in opposition he had highlighted problems including the leaking roof, ambulances without oxygen and a shortage of specialists. He urged critics to drop what he called destructive rhetoric and work with the government.
The SKNIS account does not identify the specific statements he was responding to. SKN Daily found no public response from the opposition to his remarks at the time of publication.
