The official groundbreaking for the new Cayman HospiceCare complex is to begin soon.
The new facility will be located directly being Coconut Joe’s Beach Bar and Grill on West Bay Road and will feature 4 bedrooms.
Construction workers have already cleaned up an area for an access road into the site that currently houses a Dart Real Estate arboretum and two abandoned structures that were once family homes. The cost of the building is slated to be in the $2.5 million dollar range and will take roughly a year to complete once crews begin work. This structure will replace Cayman HospiceCare’s current locations, which are comprised of a space at Trafalgar Place and a medical care location in an inpatient unit at The Pines. Cayman HospiceCare recently vacated its original home at the 3,000-square-foot Conch Shell House on North Sound Way. Cayman HospiceCare Director Danielle Coleman said the new site would bring the administration and the inpatient units under one roof and that there are numerous benefits in doing this. Under their current system, nurses and staff etc. have to come and go between the two facilities. Having everything under one roof will allow better patient care whilst the staff also tackles their administrative and clerical duties. The four new patient bedrooms can also be expanded as necessary.They can easily convert into a six-bed configuration within the same building and if more beds are required in the distant future they have room to build and relocate the administration facilities and expand more. The demand for this expansion, however, is quite unlikely. Based on the utilization of their current facilities and Cayman’s population; for at least 20 years they should have plenty of room to service the level of need.
The Cayman HospiceCare Chairman Chris Duggan said the site will be comprised of a sprawling one story building that will house the administration and also feature parking,gardens, walking paths and road accesses. They will have two nurses stations, family rooms with overnight stay capabilities and common areas for activities.
Everything to design and build this project has been donated by local trade associations, companies, the Cayman Islands government and by volunteers. CIREBA alone donated $100,000 and will have a room in the facility named after it. Jeanette Totten, the sitting CIREBA President remarked, “We are proud to be a part of Cayman HospiceCare and all the good things that they are doing”. This momentous effort was accomplished in great deal by Hospice staff, volunteer board members and the architects working on the project.