EDITORIAL: St. Jude Demands an Inquiry, Not Excuses

After 16 long years, the people of Saint Lucia are finally a step closer to accessing medical care at St. Jude Hospital in the south of the country.

The original facility was destroyed by fire in 2009. Four administrations later, a handing-over ceremony took place last Sunday, transferring the St. Jude complex from the contractor to the Ministry of Health and the hospital’s board.

We will not use this space to debate whether it was a building or a hospital that was handed over, or how long it will take before the services expected of a modern hospital are available to the public.

What we will emphasise is that the reconstruction of St. Jude has been nothing short of a travesty, repeatedly attempted and abandoned by successive administrations.

The blame game has played out on political platforms since the 2001 general elections and every election thereafter: who failed to complete the project, who would complete it, whose plan was better.

Meanwhile, the people of Saint Lucia, particularly in the south, have languished without adequate health care for 16 years, despite attempts to convert the George Odlum Stadium in Vieux Fort into a “temporary” hospital. That our athletes were also denied a proper facility, especially for track meets, is another story altogether.

There have been no winners in what should never have been a game of political football.

Some $400 million and 16 years later, Saint Lucians remain none the wiser as to why this project took so long or cost so much. Everyone involved has sought to absolve themselves of blame. That is no comfort.

While die-hard supporters of the current administration may feel satisfaction at the handing over of St. Jude, this must not be seen as the end of a story that will inevitably be etched into our history – a shameful chapter, we might add.

Many questions remain unanswered, and we strongly believe an independent inquiry should be initiated to address them and put the disturbing issues surrounding this deconstruction/reconstruction to rest once and for all. 

This should be a promise of whoever forms the next government. It must not be seen as a witch hunt, but as a way to offer Saint Lucians full transparency into the complete St. Jude story.

It is also our belief that such a contemptuous situation must never be allowed to happen again. The start/stop mentality of successive administrations has stymied our progress.

Parties would do well to include in their upcoming manifestos a pledge that projects already well underway will not be halted simply because of a change of government. There are far too many examples in recent times – the Soufrière bridge, the One Laptop Per Child programme, the administration centre in Vieux Fort, the Millennium Highway reconstruction, the Castries-Gros Islet highway, and of course, the mother of them all, St. Jude.

St. Jude Hospital was named after the biblical figure St. Jude, also known as Thaddeus, one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles – a figure of hope and faith in difficult circumstances.

We believe those who put themselves forward to serve should embody the qualities St. Jude represented: faithfulness, compassion, and courage. They must set aside political egos and do what is right for the people. 

Let forward-thinking begin, and let the nonsensical practice of stalling projects that benefit the people finally end.