Taxpayers lost big time on National Oncology Centre

THE EDITOR: In October 2002, then prime minister Patrick Manning, in delivering the budget, promised the construction of a National Oncology Centre.

In March 2007, the then PNM government took a $150m loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, to build the centre at Mt Hope. The project was supposed to be completed by July 2011.

In June 2008, after $120.1 million was spent, the project collapsed with only a foundation laid. In 2012, the People's Partnership (PP) government decided to continue the project. The new cost was put at $800 million.

Construction was to start in November 2012 and finish by November 2014. The Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) was now the main contractor.

The PP was unable to complete the project.

The PNM returned to office in 2015 and, in 2017, Udecott chairman Noel Garcia gave a 2018 deadline for completion, with a projected cost of around $575 million.

In February 2019, Health Minister Deyalsingh announced that the centre was to be scrapped.

Hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars were wasted by previous and present governments. Between 2002 and 2019, conservative estimates are that over $1 billion was spent on this centre.

Earlier this month, a private hospital in San Fernando launched a state-of-the-art oncology machine. Is the government going to subsidise this private institution by sending cancer patients for treatment at the State's expense?

According to the Hansard of March 4 in 2009, on page 27, the then PNM government spent approximately US$20 million per year to subsidise patient treatment at the Brian Lara Cancer Centre, a private facility. Are we in for more of the same in 2022?

LINUS F DIDIER

MT HOPE