New hospital for women, children to open in Seychelles in February

Work in progress to build the new hospital that will offer specialized care for women and children at Ile Perseverance. (Jude Morel, Seychelles News Agency)

(Seychelles News Agency) - A new hospital offering specialized care for women and children will open in February, the Seychelles health authorities announced on Tuesday.

Construction of the new facility is already under way at Ile Perseverance, a reclaimed district where the largest social housing project is being built on the outskirt of island nation’s capital, Victoria.

The Health and Social Affairs Minister Jean Paul Adam on Tuesday said that this is part of the Seychelles’ hospital redevelopment plan.

“Seychelles’ main hospital has limited space and it was important to look at all services and see which of them could be moved to other locations,” Adam told journalists.

He said that children and women’s health is a priority within the ministry’s strategic plan, while adding that “it is a service than can be decentralized without disrupting other services.”

The project is being implemented in different phases. The Deputy Chief Executive of the Health Care Agency Dr. Danny Louange explained that daily medical services that do not require admission will be offered once the first phase is completed.

“These include child development, antenatal services, ultra sound, gynecology, endoscopy, laboratory service, and clinics,” Louange said.

Commenting on whether the new facility will not put extra pressure on the ministry’s limited resources including human capacity, Louange said: “We are not adding a new service but rather redistributing the services, so we will not need extra staff or other resources.”

The construction of the new specialized hospital for women and children is being funded through a donation by the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Foundation of the United Arab Emirates, worth some $6 million. This includes the assembling of the pre-fabricated modules and furnishings.

The Principal Secretary for the Infrastructure Department, Yves Choppy, said that the pre-fabricated modules have been manufactured by a Dubai-based company called Modular Concept and will be assembled locally by Ascent Construction.

Choppy said there was an intensive negotiations with the contractor to ensure the 42 modules are of very good quality and would not pose any threat to the environment and health of the patients, adding that he was happy that the all conditions required were met.

“In the past we had smaller modules compared to these ones which are bigger and complete, meaning we have the floor, wall, electrical conduit, and all fittings ready for assembling,” he said.

According to Choppy the Seychelles' government is contributing around 9 million Seychelles rupees [around $671,000] to the project – on site preparation, site investigation and tax.

The project itself was initiated in 2014, and the contractor was appointed the following year. Once the project is completed in its entirety, the new facility will operate as a hospital that also offers admission.

The Ministry of Health has said that the new specialized hospital for women and children will not do away with plans to build a health centre to cater for residents of the Ile Perseverance district.

Seychelles provides free health care for the inhabitants of the 115-island archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, although there also exists several private health care facilities.