Gov­ern­ment will de­cide in a few weeks whether to con­struct a new Port-of-Spain hos­pi­tal at a dif­fer­ent lo­ca­tion or if to re­fur­bish the ex­ist­ing hos­pi­tal, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firmed yes­ter­day.Speak­ing dur­ing her Moth­er's Day vis­it to the Mt Hope Ma­ter­ni­ty Hos­pi­tal, Per­sad Bisses­sar said her vis­it to that and oth­er hos­pi­tals yes­ter­day would help in­form the judg­ment process.She said some ma­ter­ni­ty wards were al­most over­flow­ing.Say­ing she want­ed the Gov­ern­ment to con­struct some hos­pi­tals, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said there were two op­tions for Port-of-Spain-re­fur­bish the ex­ist­ing hos­pi­tal or build a brand new one in a dif­fer­ent lo­ca­tion.The PM said Cab­i­net would take a de­ci­sion on this by June.If the Gov­ern­ment opts for re­fur­bish­ing, she said this was ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed with­in three and a half years. Or a to­tal­ly new hos­pi­tal.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment would al­so de­cide in June on a pro­pos­al to an­nex the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal to the Chancery Lane com­plex, be­ing com­plet­ed in nine months. She said that would take 60 per cent of the hos­pi­tal's cur­rent pa­tient load.Gov­ern­ment is al­so ex­am­in­ing Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal.Chief of Med­ical Staff at Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal Dr Col­in Fur­longe said sys­tems were be­ing tight­ened at the fa­cil­i­ty. Spe­cial­ists were need­ed in sev­er­al sub-spe­cial­i­ty ar­eas like ob­stet­rics and gy­nae­col­o­gy which are un­der­staffed, he added.Health Min­is­ter Therese Bap­tiste-Cor­nelis said the Gov­ern­ment had a re­vamp­ing plan for the Mt Hope Ma­ter­ni­ty Hos­pi­tal work­ing with cur­rent in­fra­struc­ture and based on the work of a com­mit­tee which is al­so ex­am­in­ing in­fant mor­tal­i­ty. A short- and long-term plan is to be un­veiled. GA