00:00For thousands of citizens who rely on the capital's main healthcare hub,
00:04the wait for the Newport of Spain General Hospital Central Block is entering its final stretch,
00:10though the exact finish line remains a moving target.
00:13In unofficial response to TV6 News, authorities confirmed that a billion-dollar facility is now 97% complete as of
00:21June 23, 2026.
00:23The building is said to have undergone a comprehensive deep cleaning,
00:26transitioning the space from a construction site into a clinical environment.
00:31Project manager for the facility, the Urban Development Corporation,
00:35has designated July 14th as the updated timeline for substantial completion.
00:41This milestone focuses on finishing the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and critical ICT networks.
00:48However, this mid-July target represents the latest adjustment.
00:52Since the change in government administration, the reopening window has already been recalibrated twice,
00:59initially projected for March of this year, then pushed to June 30th,
01:03and now deferred into July, as engineers rigorously test the building's specialized infrastructure.
01:10This pattern of shifting timelines is a familiar story for the $1.3 billion project.
01:16The journey began after the devastating 6.9 magnitude earthquake compromised the old block in August of 2018.
01:24By May 2019, construction was set to take 24 to 13 months under the Shanghai Construction Group.
01:31However, the arrival of COVID-19, global supply chain freezes,
01:36and the eventual exit of the main contractor in 2022 propelled Uticot to break the project into seven local contract
01:43packages to salvage the timeline.
01:46Then, in March of 2025, the 540-bed facility was opened and handed over to the health ministry,
01:53only to be closed by the present government after the April 28th general election.
01:58It was said to be only a practical completion, with some referring to it as a physical structural shell.
02:05But Uticot, under the present government, has been navigating its own set of challenges.
02:11Minister of Works Gillian John and Minister of Health Dr. Lacram Bodo have both noted that a building cannot safely
02:18function as a hospital
02:19without calibrated diagnostic equipment, tested oxygen lines, and a cardiac cath lab.
02:26While the official word is that a facility is in its final stages before a formal handover to the Ministry
02:32of Health,
02:32history suggests that until patients are actively being treated in these wards, any date remains tentative.
02:39For a public that has monitored every dollar and every delay since 2018, July 14th is highly anticipated.
02:48Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
