Sabotage is suspected in the case of an out of commission chiller at the Critical Care Block of the Princess Margret Hospital, according to the Public Hospitals Authority.  

The out of commission chiller has forced hospital officials to postpone elective surgeries. 

Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands said the matter has been turned over to police.

“If somebody is found and we have evidence to confirm, then the full strength of the law would be applied. They would be brought before the courts and dealt with appropriately,” he said.  

The chillers collapsed only two years after the Critical Care Block was commissioned, raising serious concerns about how and why the systems failed so quickly.

Dr. Sands said a temporary fix should be in place by the end of this week.

“Temporary chillers were loaded onto a vessel from Palm Beach, Florida I believe yesterday and I am advised that they should be in New Providence certainly by Monday, at the latest Tuesday, and then transported by trailer to the Princess Margret Hospital,” Dr. Sands said. 

“Then it’s a matter of making the hard connection to the existing air conditioning system.

“Once that connection is done because there’s no instillation per say because it’s going to be on a flatbed truck or trailer.”  

Those rental chillers come at a cost of $7,000 per month for the next five months. 

Dr. Sands said these will provide some 250 tons of chilling capacity to last until the permanent $1.5 million chilling systems are commissioned.