The Best Dos Santos Public Health Lab and the Isolation Facility at Harrison Point, St Lucy, which surged to the forefront of health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been identified as potential moneymakers for the Government.
Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill singled out the two facilities as “potential for revenue generation” Wednesday during his time before the House of Assembly where debate on the Estimates continued yesterday.
“As we slowly transition out of the COVID environment, the opportunities for income generation by the Best dos Santos and Harrison Point would be fully explored,” he said.
The minister explained that health care was fast becoming a sector for opportunities, not just for nurses but in the area of bio-medical technicians, engineers and other specialist staff. Now, he said, is the time for training to take advantage of the opportunities.
Gooding-Edghill was speaking under the Appropriation Bill, 2022 Head 86 of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, which has a $326.6 million expenditure budget.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Harrison Point, a former American naval base and a site that once housed prisoners after the burning of Glendairy Prisons, was repurposed as an isolation facility for the critical ill COVID-19 patients.
Meantime, the Best dos Santos lab, which opened four years ago, has carried out hundreds of thousands of tests for the virus. (AC)