Hospitals
Cayman is fortunate to have over 200 registered healthcare facilities, including pharmacies, laboratories, physician practices and therapy clinics, over 700 registered practitioners and numerous private specialists. The combined work of all these faculties has helped keep Cayman’s community safe providing world-class medical care.
2023 saw continued innovation and major developments in the health and wellness community across both public and private sectors. In the public sphere, the Health Services Authority (HSA) expanded its range of services at the new specialist clinic at Smith Road Medical Centre (150 Smith Road), now offering services including general surgery, ENT, urology, internal medicine, pain management, chiropractic, neurosurgery, complementary and alternative approaches to medicine (CAM) and more. This facility is a beneficial addition to Cayman’s medical field and refers to old holistic and naturopathic approaches to medicine on which so many generational Caymanians have been reliant.
A pharmacy, cardiology clinic, general practice, public health clinic and additional phlebotomy laboratory, are all located within the Smith Road Medical Centre. The waiting rooms are fitted with ergonomic seating designed for seniors and patients with mobility issues, ensuring patients feel comfortable in a nurturing, aesthetically pleasing environment.
HSA’s new Cayman Islands Molecular Biology Laboratory (CIMBL) will perform diagnostic genome sequencing to help advance medical treatment and outcomes for patients in the Cayman Islands. A major advantage of this new service is its local availability, resulting in the reduction of time, cost and inconvenience currently associated with sending samples overseas. It also removes the issue of having to undergo expensive medical travel.
A new telemedicine robot has also been added to the Little Cayman Clinic to give patients and staff the experience and familiarity of a face-to-face encounter with the HSA’s remote physicians during initial exams, treatments and during post-procedural follow-ups.
Furthermore, at the Cayman Islands Hospital, HSA are prioritising a reduction in their energy consumption and carbon footprint by spending approximately $2 million on green investments. By installing energy-efficient thermal windows, a solar photovoltaic system, four advanced chillers, LED lighting and a hospital recycling programme, it is predicted that such initiatives will provide greater sustainability in the public health sector, whilst also benefitting the patient experience at the HSA.
In the private sector, we are seeing similar interest in healthcare facilities wanting to prioritise inclusivity and accessibility for all patients across the Cayman Islands. For instance, Health City Cayman Islands, which established a 110-bed hospital in East End in 2014, has already partially completed a new US$100 million super-speciality hospital in Camana Bay. The new facility features a specialised cancer care centre, neonatal intensive care unit, emergency pavilion, critical care unit and emergency multi-speciality programme, including an expansion on robotic-assisted surgery, which was introduced to the Island by Health City for the first time last year. Parts of the new hospital, like the radiotherapy unit are already open, while the entire project is slated for completion by the end of 2023. This new location will cement Grand Cayman as a medical tourism destination in the Caribbean, being the first in the region to offer services like bone marrow transplantation, CAR-T Cell therapy and a one-of-a-kind NICU. Over the next 10 years, the owners aim to construct a 2,000-bed facility with two hotels and a residential community.
In addition, in October 2023 Health City Cayman Islands entered into a collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a global leader in cancer care and research, marking a milestone in their effort to enhance oncology care domestically and internationally. As part of this partnership, Health City will gain access to oncology education and training programs, including advanced clinical and research lectures, peer reviews of complex cases, and clinical observerships at Dana-Farber in Boston, Massachusetts. They will also streamline the process for referring complex cancer patients to Dana-Farber.
Services around mental health have also continued to grow. Last year a new mental health hub created specifically for children and adolescents opened at the Cayman Islands Hospital. The facility, which is run in partnership with the Alex Panton Foundation, is open 24/7 and offers walk-in assistance for youth who need immediate care.
In East End, a larger inpatient mental health facility, which has undergone many name changes, is set to open mid-2024 after the pandemic and multiple factors caused building delays. The facility, now named Poinciana, will include nine cottages, each housing up to six people. Originally budgeted at around CI$15 million, ballooning to a projected $21.5m, the 15-acre facility will help fill a critical gap in Cayman’s long-term mental health care resources.
