The psy­chi­atric ward at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex (EWM­SC) has been re­lo­cat­ed to the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal as health au­thor­i­ties move to in­crease bed ca­pac­i­ty at the fa­cil­i­ty.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia from his of­fice yes­ter­day, Chair­man of the North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA), Dr Tim Gopeesingh, said the re­lo­ca­tion would free up space for oth­er crit­i­cal ser­vices, in­clud­ing ac­ci­dent and emer­gency (A&E) op­er­a­tions.

“We have now trans­ferred the psy­chi­a­try with 25 beds to the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal, which was des­ig­nat­ed for psy­chi­a­try and which re­mained un­touched for five years un­der the last ad­min­is­tra­tion. Al­so, the ac­ci­dent and emer­gency was nev­er used over the last five years and pret­ty short­ly we’ll be mov­ing the ac­ci­dent and emer­gency from the present area now to the main hos­pi­tal. So, we are free­ing up 25 beds,” he said.