St. Kitts and Nevis’s new JNF Hospital will be a game-changer for its healthcare

Dubbed as a game-changing infrastructural boost that will transform St. Kitts and Nevis’s health sector, the island-nation’s upcoming Sir Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) Health Network Multi-Specialty Hospital will be a world-class, high-tech ‘Centre of Excellence’ catering to patients’ comfort, disaster resilience and eco-friendly practices. Besides local citizens, people from other parts of the Eastern Caribbean and tourists will also be served at the hospital, promoting medical tourism. 

On February 7, the hospital’s 3D design was officially unveiled by the government at a ceremony in St. Kitts Marriot Resort at Frigate Bay. The event saw the presence of Prime Minister Terrance Drew, members of his cabinet, healthcare professionals and international partners. 

“This is more than just an upgrade; this is a transformation of our healthcare system,” PM Drew said on the occasion. 

The construction work of the hospital is set to begin soon. It will be spread over a 15-acre plot in West Farm in St. Kitts and will have several facilities on offer. The Drew-led government made a deal with the Overseas Engineering and Construction Company of Taiwan in May 2024 towards the construction of the new climate-smart hospital. 

Jenson Morton, the director of health institutions in the St. Kitts and Nevis’s health ministry who has played a major role in developing the hospital’s plan, gave a detailed description of the new JNF Multi-Speciality Hospital at the design-unveiling ceremony.

Emphasizing the facility will meet guidelines of accreditation of international standards and will be a centre of excellence, he said the hospital building will be technologically smart in its operations, resilient to withstand natural forces like hurricanes and earthquakes, and environmentally green, incorporating renewable systems, including solar power.

He added the patients will have a soothing environment conducive for healing. Noise from nearby roads and heliport will be mitigated through the use of exterior glazing and acoustic surroundings. Morton said every single patient room in the new hospital will be located on the upper floors which will give them sweeping views either of the ocean or of the mountains and it can have an overall calming effect. 

Comparison with older hospital

When compared to the existing JNF General Hospital in terms of facilities, the new hospital will have 128 beds, more than those available in the older hospital. It will also have multi-specialty units as against the older hospital’s limited facilities. It will also be able to withstand natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes as against the current hospital’s basic features of resilience. The multi-specialty hospital will be solar-powered and eco-friendly while the current hospital lacks green energy features.

Morton said the new hospital also marks a major development over the older one in other ways. He said the number of people suffering from chronic medical ailments has increased such as heart diseases, high diabetes and blood pressure. There has also been an increase in psychiatric patients. The explosion in the population seeking medical care has necessitated an entire new medical facility and the new hospital will cater to that requirement. 

Other features of the new hospital

Morton said the hospital will have enormous flexibility and capacity for the in-patient units through efficient medical planning. He said all intensive care unit (ICU) beds and high dependency unit beds are provided as single occupancy rooms and not an open bay system. 

There will only be single acute care inpatient rooms and twin-sharing inpatient rooms for better operational efficiency. They will have patient head wall units requiring outlets for data, oxygen, electricals, medical gases, and other essential features.

In the maternity unit of the hospital, antenatal postpartum rooms will be available for single occupancy.

Other medical services that will be available at the hospital include: Cardiology, dermatology, ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinic, cardiothoracic surgery, mammography, neurology, nephrology, and others.

Besides bringing major changes in St. Kitts and Nevis’s healthcare sector, the new hospital is also expected to create several jobs over the course of its development. 

In December 2024, PM Drew said during an inspection of the facility’s site that the hospital project is not only about improving healthcare services for the citizens of the island-nation but also marks a key economic investment. He said the construction of the facility will generate several employment opportunities and leave a lasting economic impact.

At an estimated cost of nearly $200 million, the new multi-specialty hospital is one of the significant achievements in St. Kitts and Nevis’s government’s Sustainable Island State Agenda.