Audio: MPs On Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre
Any decision about the future of the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Center will be made next year, Premier Michael Dunkley said in the House of Assembly on Friday [Nov 21[.
The Premier was being questioned following his Ministerial statement on the hurricane response, in which he said “based on previous experiences the pre-positioning of assets and personnel at various points proved invaluable to the recovery of some critical elements of our infrastructure,” and cited a number of factors including “the enhanced staffing of the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre….”
Opposition MP Zane Desilva questioned the Premier, saying: “My question to the Premier is, looking at his Ministerial statement, he says on the second page, second paragraph, based on previous experiences, the preposition of assets proved invaluable, and then he goes on to say in his third bullet point, the enhanced staffing at the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Center by the Bermuda Hospital’s Board, as well as the Bermuda Fire Service appliance at KEMH.
“So my question to the Honourable Premier is, with the former Premier having said in this Honourable House that the Lambe Foggo Center will not close, and with the subsequent statements made by previous Health Minister Pat Gordon-Pamplin my question to this Premier is: will he reconfirm that the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Center will remain open?
Audio of the exchange in the House on Friday:
“That question has nothing to do with the statement,” replied Premier Michael Dunkley.
“I’m shocked by that answer from our Premier,” Mr. Desilva said, “Mr. Premier, that is mentioned specifically in this Ministerial statement, and he says that it’s invaluable, i.e. the Lamb Foggo Center is invaluable. My question is, the people of Bermuda certainly want to know from this Premier, is the OBA’s plan to keep the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Center open? It’s very important.”
Premier Dunkley replied, “The statement speaks for itself, I stand by the statement.
Mr Desilva then asked, “Can the Honourable Premier now tell this country and this Honourable house that his plan is to close the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Center?
The Premier replied, “That is not my plan, any plans are Government plans, and any decision going forward will be made next year, not this year.”
You can view all our coverage on the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre here.
Yes, but wouldn’t we just use another resource Fire station medical facilites in an emergency.
We could just close the FOGGO building down and open it up pre hurricane. would make it useful still.
Why not put the ambulance at Lamb Foggo or station a fire apparatus there? Makes sense. It’s a newer facility than the current Clearwater Fire Station.
I agree to a point with you “smh” I further believe it would be far-more economical if the clinic in St. Georges was to merge with the “Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre” and possibly the fire station. I must further mention,(once again) how I believe its absolutely necessary to keep a volunteer Fire Station in the Olde Town of St. Georges…in the event there’s a fire that will risk burning many historical buildings down to ashes in the event the bridge (when working) gets stuck:-(
Of course, the distance from St. Davids to the “Ole Town” will make a World of a difference. So, to all One Bermuda Alliance representatives do re-open the sub fire station a.s.a.p.
The 2 were not strategically positioned to work together, the fire station needs to be immediately off the runways for priority service to airport emergencies, the Lamb Foggo is too far off the runway for the fire services to move there. So that leaves moving the Lamb Foggo to the fire services… An expense that we cannot afford at this time as you said, the fire station there is an older facility and would require major upgrading. I do agree, the 2 services should be given a combined facility for better cost containment and management, and this should have been considered in the beginning.
The Premier said that no decision will be made until next year.
Come on, Zane. That is the statement. How can you ask for a decision when he said none will be made until next year? Politics 101 again.
If this thing had never been built we’d have been none the wiser for it.
When you build something for political gain (read .. votes) it always comes back to bite you in the behind. Remember , the west end was supposed to get one also but the safe seats , per se , just didn’t end up justifying it and it never materialized .
The problem is , the ‘you’ who were responsible for it are long gone and the fallout is left to a bunch of people who either feel it’s needed or others who see it as a financial white elephant bickering over the justification for it .
Divide and conquer , anyone ?
Typical of Zane.
Nothing new to bring to the table except badger the Premier with 3 or 4 versions of the same question.
I thought the PLP were part time members of the House.
Feeding at the trough.
That $20M overrun on Port Royal could have kept this clinic open for years.
You have more important things to be concerned about these days Mr. DeSilva. I look forward to the hot potato coming your way very soon.
Bottom line, is it worth keeping open or is it not? It was built as a vote buying excercise by the PLP then very few used it. Another waste of money for a purpose built building that is not easily adaptable for another use.
I agree to a point with you “smh” I further believe it would be far-more economical if the clinic in St. Georges was to merge with the “Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre” and possibly the fire station. I must further mention,(once again) how I believe its absolutely necessary to keep a volunteer Fire Station in the Olde Town of St. Georges…in the event there’s a fire that will risk burning many historical buildings down to ashes if the the bridge (when working) gets stuck:-(
Of course, the distance from St. Davids to the “Ole Town” will make a World of a difference. So, to all One Bermuda Alliance representatives do re-open the sub fire station a.s.a.p.
I was there last weekend on an afternoon. We drove up with not a car in sight. I said to the person in the car with me get out and check to see whether it was open or not, as it looked very closed. The door was open. We had the place to ourselves and I joked it was like having our very own private clinic. What a waste of resources. Have an ambulance at fire stations at both ends of the island and get rid of the Lamb Foggo Clinic. Where was just one of those people marching to keep it open. Certainly not there for the hour I was there alone that day. It is a luxury we cannot afford. To drive a few extra minutes to the Hospital and maybe wait a little bit longer is the price we need to pay to try to help get healthcare costs reduced or face the consequences. Unfortunately the seats down in St. David’s are marginals and to close the clinic would be very dicey. So I understand the dilemma. Like taking candy away from a child.
I had one emergency the entire time it was open but had to wait until 4pm when it opened. This would be fine if we could only plan our emergencies in advance. Unfortunatley, my emergency happened about lunch time. Silly me for not having the emergency later on so that it was open.
This was a hairbrained scheme from the beginning. Assinine is another word that comes to mind. An emergency room only open part of the day. Who would come up with such a concept? Only a Politician I guess.
I remember all the criticism that accompanied the buying of fast ferries to replace Bermuda’s ageing fleet. It was a waste of money voice the naysayers and such criticism held full sway until a hurricane took out the causeway. And where would we be if we did not have fast ferries to service the cruise ships that come here? We now understand their value so much so that this government brings in an extra one from a foreign company to service the cruise ship business. We have seen the value of the lamb-foggo-centre; it served as an emergency back up during the arrival of the last storms. Just because it was not used in any extent does not mean that in the future the need will not be there. The people of the East end should make this a political issue and political consequence if this government dares take a decision to dismantle the Lamb-Foggo-Centre.
Avin, your memory is fading. It was the UBP Government that made the decision to upgrade to faster ferrys. In between that decision & the selection & purchase came the election which put the PLP in the decision seat.
Get it straight now. It was the PLP which bought boats from the other side of the world instead of a builder less than 1000 miles away.
I’m waiting to hear Zanes comments on Port Royal. Surely he can contribute to a discussion on that topic.
Can we please consider services that are offered in St Georges and merge them? The facility alone encourages people to be seen for minor incidenes that can be seen by their GP. (Which affects the rise is healthcare) Secondly anything more serious gets referred to the new acute wing. This is a waste of money. Not to mention their are all sorts of cuts within the hospital to accommodate expenses such as these. An when you look at the cuts in staffing, and other basic necessities there is a quality of patient care that is on a downward decline. Would you rather cut to accomodate and have a decrease in level of care? Please let’s thoroughly consider the worth of this facility….
Stop deflecting Zane and tell Bermuda where the 20 million dollar`s of the “peoples” purse has gone. Nobody wants to hear anything else from you!! Right mate ! ah mate ah mate where is the money mate ???????????????
The PLP desperately need this facility to remain open so that they can use it to remind the east end of their “caring” and so that they can get votes for it.
Eventually I am sure the auditor will be commenting on its construction.