Caymanians promised Shettyhospital work
(CNS): With the much anticipated Shetty hospital project due to break ground in East End on 27 August, the local partners have promised that the bulk of the construction work on the first phase of the140-bed hospital will go to Caymanians. Speaking at a public meeting in Bodden Town to update the people in the districts most affected and offer an opportunity for construction workers to sign up, Gene Thompson confirmed the project was going ahead, in contradiction to the persistent rumours that the development was stalled. He said the planning application would be submitted very soon and considerable work had been done on preparing the site at High Rock in East End.
Construction of the $50 million project is expected to take around 14 months and Thompson said he would be monitoring the construction phase to ensure local workers get the jobs. He said one of the main benefits of Health City Cayman Islands, which will be the name of new medical facility, was the work it would bring for local people.
At the first meeting in East End over one hundred people signed on for the project and dozens more turned up at the second meeting in Bodden Town. A third meeting has been planned for next Wednesday in North Side, as Thompson says there will be work for as many as three hundred people.
Thompson said developing the full scale 2,000-bed hospital project, including an assisted living facility and teaching hospital, would be spread over the next 15 years and bring many benefits to Cayman, from state-of-the-art medical care to numerous employment opportunities, both before and after the project is complete.
Dr Devi Shetty, the world renown Indian heart surgeon, is expected to return to Cayman next month to see the groundbreaking on the first phase of his project, which should be open by the end of 2013. Shetty's goal is to attract overseas patients from the Caribbean and United States who are seeking affordable but high quality specialist health care. The Cayman government has agreed to give Shetty a number of concessions, including duty waivers and tax breaks. However, foreign workers there will be subject to government's new income should it be implemented.
The government has also changed the health practitioners law to enable doctors and medical staff qualified in India to practice at the new facility and has also changed the laws relating to medical compensation. It has also agreed to pass a law allowing human tissue and organ donation and transplant. This new legislation is expected to reach the Legislative Assembly before the end of the year.
Both the developers and government hope that Health City Cayman Islands will kick-start a third leg for Cayman's economy of medical tourism. Land owner and developer Joseph Imperato also has plans to develop supporting resort infrastructure in tandem with the project, which, if it reaches the stated goal of 2,000 beds, will be attracting visitor numbers to Cayman the likes of which the island has never seen before.
Category: Local News
Just in time for the %10 hospital bed tax! Expats only of course.
19.59 you must be am expat and have no clue what you are talking about. Did you think tourism just started last year? Caymanians were in the torism since the 60s and built it up until the end of 70s and then thats when the we satrted getting the stick. Why after almost 50 years we still dont see more Caymanians in high position in banking and torism. Oh, yeah we all have the same excuse… we are lazy and incompetant or just dropped out from a coconut tree yesterday or is it we just always get bamboozled from the Immigration system that just doest give a shit so they can make revenue in governmnet coffers . Now look were our visionless elected members are heading to a VAT tax on foreigners. Always a quick fix and no long term sensible plan to sustain revenue and keep it here in Caymans economy.
"A promise is a comfort to a fool!"
Well then here is a golden oppertunity once again for the Caymanian construction workers to show everyone just what they can do given the chance. Again.
OPEN LETTER TO GENE THOMPSON
Hey Gene, people are fedup with foolishness, so lets get this straight.
You announce that 'THE FIRST PHASE" of construction work will go to Caymanians?????
Exactly what does that mean? that the remaining phases will go to expats?
COME BACK AND EXPLAIN THIS IN DETAIL I am confused.
After the first phasee will Construction Caymanian workers be out of work all over again then you're going to get 10,000 work permits for cheap labor? We are watching you Gene and all the rest of those concerned with this project.
ARDEN MCLEAN YOU BETTER TALK TO GENE THOMPSON ABOUT THIS AND MAKE SURE CAYMANIANS FILL THOSE JOBS DURING THE COURSE OF THE ENTIRE PROJECT. NO SHENANIGANS HERE!
ALL PHASES OF WORK MUST GO TO CAYMANIANS FROM "START TO FINISH"
OR ELSE SCRAP THE DEAL!OENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
If they are smart they would SCRAP the DEAL.
Meeting after meeting after public meeting – never have I seen as many meetings in my life !
If I remember wrightly a lot of the electrician jobs promised for Caymanians at Caman Bay, Ritz went to Mexicans. The 3 or 4 dollar an hour cleaning/handman/goapher jobs will be offered to Caymanians
In the real world where us expats all live you get the job your qualified to actually get done and thats a normal world where everything works, jobs get finished on time, on budget, and with the expected quality. Not the Caymankind world of lots of promises and NO results. Like it or not your world is going to change as the money runs out (if it hasn't already) and your leadership will not be able to afford to protect you from the world. Good luck. With Caymans education system you and your kids will need it.
Did you say PROMISE. Wait let me tune into Radio Cayman so Dwayne can promise us Caymanins lies once again. Like Ritz Carlton, Cayman Bay, Otanique Restaurant and Michaels Genuine ring a bell. Next time you are there count how many Caymanians are employed. Dont count the Cubans in the back washing dishes that fill the Caymanian quota for work permits who got political asylum or are granted decendent family status.
Caymanians were given jobs at Ortanique and Michaels, they just didnt last past the first 2 weeks of their employment due to sheer laziness, not tunring up, pulling sick days in their first week etc.
Perhaps you could be a first and actually change the perception in the industry, ofcourse that will involve getting up off your ass, being polite and curteous actually holding down a job like the rest of us.
A Caymanian.
Crumb beggars porr things!
https://sites.google.com/site/cppicayman/
Smoke and mirrors. 2000 beds ain't gonna happen. Not even 200 beds.
yeah, yeah..heard it all before…Ritz Carlton ring any bells??? Caymanians were promised jobs there too..only problem was, all those jobs were entry level meniel labor jobs..NOT ONE SINGLE management job was offered to a Caymanian..this was just an excuse to fill up the building with foreign labor…and 6 years later?? ONLY ONE Caymanian holds a management position within the hotel…and why you may ask?? XXXXXX
…and all of the Holiday Inn workers that were promised they would have jobs at the "new", "bigger" hotel the following year. Took them 8+ years.
Not everybody with a grade 9 education gets to be Premier, Bobo.
Either way your agreeing with the above poster. The shetty hospital will have little impact on local employment unless the imported labour becomes naturalized.
Thanks to Dr. Shetty for his hospital, before the hospital is completed, there will be enough good inexpensive labour to choose and refuse from. Long live the Shetty hospital and time will tell about the wonderful project in the form of Dr. Shetty's hospital that will bring so much employment that the 8,000 unemployed Caymanians shall all have two jobs. Oh how I wish that Mr. Bertie Panton was here to guide us. Thanks to the past leaders of this country that I can say I knew Cayman when we owned everything …… and knew our neighbours, when you have to literally go to the dump to see garbage. Our people took pride in keeping their islands clean.
Most people here don't need to ask. There is GOOD reason for this but no surprise that many Caymanians can't figure it out. And before all the crying its the same as everywhere else. Those who can't hold a job anywhere are the only ones who can't see why. But they could ask the ONLY ONE.
They ain’t go getters?
"Bread crumbs"…I bet these will all be menial jobs and the "fat cats" will continue to bring in expat labor for the higher paying supervisory and management jobs in the name of "no experience" of the natives
It will be terrible if all those trained Caymanian hospital managers and supervisors are discriminated against…
yea, and they will be exempt from the xpat tax!!!
planning not submitted but ground breaking scheduled for 24th August???????
The introduction of taxation radically alters the business case for all Cayman development, including the Shetty Hospital. The cat is out of the bag. They won't be rushing here until they digest what the "communittee enrichment fee" means for them and whether they will be truly exempt and for how long.
One word for you to wrap your head around. CONSESSION!!!! Take your time and digest it slowly.
Way to Go Guys!!! Please keep moving forward, we need all the projects that this Government has worked so hard for to come to life… Keep Caymanians first…
Shetty fell in Bush's lap. it took no effort by the UDP. Nice of them to get out of the way though.
I wonder if Bush bothered to tell Shetty about his 10% payroll tax.