City West residents claim new treatment facility will be opened in Villa, which is why the Cancer Centre was allowed to close

City West residents are alleging that a cancer-treatment facility is soon to be opened in the Villa Area and is connected to a political figure and a member of a prominent church.

This, they contend, is why the Browne Administration was so complacent about the closing of the OECS Cancer Centre, which, according to the minister of health, should have wound up its operations at the end of April.

In the most recent parliamentary meeting, Sir Molwyn Joseph admitted that both he and Prime Minister Gaston Browne had been advised of the closure, by the Cancer Centre’s principal shareholder, one whole year ago.

However, no word of this was shared with the public, or with the patients receiving treatment at the facility, until last month when Joseph confirmed the rumour as true.

While he also said that the patients would not be abandoned by the Government, Joseph shared that treatment abroad had been arranged for fewer than 10 persons – leaving residents to wonder what would become of the others.

Meanwhile, the sources could not confirm whether the purported new treatment centre would be accommodated at the largely under-used polyclinic in Villa, but that is the suspicion.

What they say they are sure about, however, is that the new facility is owned by a senior government politician and “the Trinidadian man” who is well known to his congregation.