Possible medical hotel for Antigua

The government of Antigua and Barbuda has verbally approved construction plans for a modern medical hotel in Coolidge, starting December 2019. The objective of the project is to promote medical tourism to Antigua from the USA, the Middle East, South America and Europe. Targets include medical tourists seeking high value cosmetic surgery.

The project will provide procedures that are not available at the main local state hospital, Mount St. John’s Medical Centre.

The project is expected to be completed within 18 months and will cost more than US$350 million to construct and to equip the medical hotel.

Although the proposed hospital is not intended to receive or treat patients originating within Antigua and Barbuda, the project will train and employ hundreds of specialist nurses, administrative staff, and other kinds of hospitality workers, including Antiguans and Barbudans.

The government has approved the project, in principle, but detailed legal deals have yet to be agreed and signed.

There is little or no inbound medical tourism to Antigua. Mount St John Medical Centre is not free to non-nationals. It is able to cope with many types of treatment, but serious cases mean emergency evacuation, usually to the USA or Cayman Islands. There is currently one small private hospital.