by Linda Straker
- Damien Dolland is lead consultant on new hospital project management team
- Project Polaris goal is construction of a new research/teaching hospital
- Management team met with John Hopkins University and Mt Sinai about their willingness to partner
The Government of Grenada has appointed Damien Dolland, founder of the USA based The Darisami Group, and co-founder of Trocar Pharma Inc., as the lead consultant to the new hospital project management team.
Dolland is the nephew of businessman Hugh Dolland and the cousin of Randall Dolland — current chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA). According to Dolland’s LinkedIn page, the Darisami Group is an independent corporate finance boutique that provides investment banking and advisory services to regional and international companies in the public and private sectors, located or interested in Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean.
Providing a status report about the new hospital project during a townhall meeting as part of activities to celebrate the second anniversary of National Democratic Congress (NDC) winning the June 2022 General Elections, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell announced that the hospital project has been given a name.
Branded as “Project Polaris” the goal for this project is the construction of a new research/teaching hospital in Grenada as announced by Government in late 2022 and recommended in the 2035 National Development Plan. The other members of the management team for the project Andrea St Bernard, Richard Duncan, the Permanent and Deputy Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry of finance, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Health and a representative from the Tony Blair Institute.
Dolland was one of the advisors who accompanied the Prime Minister to attend the inaugural Caricom-Saudi Arabia Summit held in November 2023. The summit was geared to strengthen ties, promote trade and investment relations between Saudi Arabia and Caricom and further expand internal relations.
“Sometimes you have to give things a name to keep them in context, so we have called it Project Polaris,” the Prime Minister told the 10 June meeting in St Patrick. Government has already acquired 84 acres of land as the site for the hospital, however, the Prime Minister pointed out that the hospital will only utilise a few acres. “We don’t need 84 acres of land to build the hospital but we are building more than a hospital. We are creating a medical or health village and we have to ensure that we can control the development around the hospital so we can have other economic activities around the hospital to support the hospital.”
The Prime Minister said that Government will be seeking to work along with an international partner to manage and run the facility. One of the conditions the Government has currently set is for that international partner to begin working with Grenada now, so they can start fixing the current challenges in the medical system.
Speaking about the activities of the management team since it was established, the Prime Minister said, “This group has been meeting every week to advance the project.” On 11 June, the team met with the John Hopkins University, and they have already met with Mt Sinai to hold discussions with them about their willingness to partner with Grenada.
He disclosed that there are other operators, and Government will rank them before a decision is finalised.
We want to support the development of the hospital. As this vision will provide world-class medical care and services throughout the Tri-Island-State and beyond.
We want the community to invest in their health and wellness .A healthy country is a wealthy country.
Based on the information which I have been able to obtain from users of the medical system in Grenada, the current challenges have little if anything to do with the physical infrastructure. They relate almost exclusively to issues related to insufficient qualified motivated health personnel and to deficiencies in management of the system. How can a new building fix this?
Does the Dolland Group has special business connections with Grenada’s Government? It looks that way. So I am trying to find out if my assumption is correct.
FYI: Why are we building “a new hospital” in the first place?
Please share the location of the project, and the timeline as it begins to unfold.
Blessings to the Team.
Great! How about the Financing of same? Is thaqt already in place? Can you share some details about the same and the various Critical ,Milestones in the Project?