Governor General Sir Rodney Williams, during this morning’s Speech to the Throne, announced that the country’s lone hospital – the Mount St John Medical Centre – will be renamed “The Sir Lester Bird – Mount St. John Medical Center”.
“Superb leadership at the ministerial and directorship levels have assured us of a new and higher level of treatment at the hospital, which will soon be called: The Sir Lester Bird – Mount St. John Medical Center,” said the Governor General.
The Governor General also pointed to the “criticism and opprobrium” Bird got “for having the foresight, the prescience, to construct the purpose-built hospital on the Mount”.
“Institutions that bear the names of their originators will forever cause the nation to examine our history, my Government believes; and, The Sir Lester Bird – Mount St. John Medical Center will stand as such a monument in history,” said Sir Rodney.
The basis, however, by which the government came to this ultimate renaming of Mount St John was not disclosed by the Sir Rodney in the Throne Speech.
Another very popular suggestion offered as possible name of the hospital was that of recently-deceased renown doctor, Sir Prince Ramsey.