Opposition Spokesperson on Health, Dr Morais Guy, has slammed Christopher Tufton over his handling of the rehabilitation of the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) project.

Guy blasted Tufton as “unpatriotic” following the minister’s suggestion that he would be shifting the project over to overseas contractors following three years of delays.

Guy said he is not surprised at the latest attempt by Tufton to shift the blame for the debacle at CRH to the contractor, noting that the problem is more appropriately attributed to the minister, his style of leadership and marketing of the Ministry of Health.

“Minister Tufton should simply accept responsibility for the chain of failures which has resulted in the set back of the project and the waste of millions of taxpayers’ funds,” Dr Guy said.

According to Guy, the country had already spent approximately J$60 million for project management consultancy from a foreign consultancy which did not resolve the issues at the hospital.

He further said that the naming of a new group of project managers is clearly another way to waste public funds.

“I highlighted then that the original deadline of April 2018 was shifted to September and then again shifted to November 2019, and on top of that, in July of 2020, Minister Tufton stated publicly that the rehabilitation of the CRH was progressing well with the first phase slated to be completed in August,” Dr Guy recalled.

Guy said that the next phase of works included the gutting of the entire building which was scheduled for September 2019 and to be concluded by December 2019, a deadline he noted that was also missed.

According to Guy, every missed deadline adds to the waste of public funds, noting that someone should take responsibility and abort the running stream of waste associated with the Cornwall Regional Hospital.