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The new bil­lion-dol­lar, state-of-the-art Cen­tral Block at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal was in­tend­ed to pro­vide more func­tion­al, safe, and ef­fi­cient health­care de­liv­ery to the pop­u­la­tion.

Yet, al­most three months af­ter then prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley un­veiled a com­mem­o­ra­tive plaque mark­ing its “prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion,” the $1.3 bil­lion fa­cil­i­ty re­mains un­opened as out­fit­ting con­tin­ues.

This prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion cer­e­mo­ny sug­gest­ed the hos­pi­tal was ready. A video cir­cu­lat­ing in March showed un­fin­ished in­te­ri­ors and ex­posed walls, con­tra­dict­ing the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment’s fan­fare and rais­ing pub­lic con­cern over the fa­cil­i­ty’s readi­ness.