FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2026
VOLUME 120, No. 05
Workers’ return deadline Page 2
www.thevincentian.com
Gov’t Estimates Page 4
House??? denied Page 11
EC$1.50
VAT cut caution Page 17
No gang control Page 24
The Colonial Hospital became the Kingstown General Hospital and was renamed the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in October 2000, in honour of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ first Prime Minister, Robert Milton Cato.
Daniel Cummings, Minister of Health, raised the likelihood that the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) could be closed.
Memorial Hospital (MCMH) could be closed. This indication did not did not escape the attention of the opposition, and leader of the Opposition Dr. Ralph Gonsalves took to the airways to strongly oppose the government’s indication, that they intend to close the MCMH. The closure was directly opposite to the position of the Dr. Gonsalves-led government under whose watch the project was initiated. In keeping with that position, Dr. Gonsalves advocated instead, a refurbishing of the MCMH to provide three main areas of healthcare delivery: maternity, paediatrics and accident and emergency, to Left: The visiting delegation serve the Western end of the country. viewing a scale model of Continued on Page 3. the Acute Care Hospital.
MINISTER OF HEALTH DANIEL CUMMINGS, who was part of a Dr. Godwin Friday led delegation that last week Friday visited the construction site of the Acute Care Hospital at Arnos Vale, emphasized the critical role the new facility will play in strengthening the national healthcare system, and expressed his desire to see, among other things, the incorporation of a dedicated paediatric department within the development, something for which provision was not made in the original plan. Should the project be expanded to accommodate his “desire”, the Minister gave indication that this country’s main tertiary level health care facility, the Milton Cato