Health City US$121million expansion

Health City Camana Bay will become the first hospital in the region to offer bone marrow transplantation and CAR-T Cell cancer therapy, in a new US$121 million medical campus in Camana Bay. It will serve the local community and will look to attract international patients from the wider Caribbean, Canada and the USA.

CAR-T Cell cancer therapy is a type of treatment in which a patient’s T cells (a type of immune system cell) are changed in the laboratory so they will attack cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapy is used to treat certain blood cancers, and it is being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer.

Health City has provided medical care for Cayman Islands residents for seven years. This new investment is an expansion of its facilities, with the construction of a KY$100 million medical campus at Camana Bay. The investment has been brought forward to counter competition from the planned Aster Cayman MedCity.

The advanced oncology department will also include medical oncology, haemato-oncology, surgical oncology and radiation oncology. The hospital will include a multi-specialty programme that includes robotic surgery, a neonatal intensive care unit, emergency pavilion and critical care.

Health City Camana Bay is targeted more at locals than medical tourists but will cater for the Caribbean region. Health City already has an outpatient clinic for domestic medical tourism offering outpatient care and surgical follow-up care. The facility does not function as a general practice clinic, but offers outpatient consultations for a range of specialised medical services, including cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics, medical oncology, gastroenterology, gynaecology and urology.

Health City Cayman Islands is not requesting any additional concessions outside of its original agreement with the Cayman Islands government, and the services the expansion will provide continue to fall within the scope of the previously planned phases.

A top Cayman Islands’ private investor, Dart, is providing finance for the 24-month expansion project, where landfill is under remediation and new road infrastructure is being built. The facility is estimated to take 12 to 18 months to complete.

During construction of the new medical campus, Health City Cayman Islands will open a smaller, satellite location within Camana Bay, for which it has already earmarked clinical space. This space will be integrated within the larger proposed facility when it is complete.

As part of its commitment to the Cayman Islands, Health City is also intending to increase its presence with the opening of an office in Cayman Brac. Health City physicians will provide accessible specialist healthcare and alleviate the need for patients to travel to Grand Cayman for outpatient follow ups and check-ups. There will be a satellite clinic established in Cayman Brac for chemotherapy and other services that would reduce the need for travel when there is no need for surgery or major diagnostics.

In November 2019, Health City broke ground on what would have been the Caribbean’s first cancer treatment centre at Health City’s original campus at East End. This project will now be relocated to the Camana Bay location.