Scarborough General Hospital can now boast of a state-of-the-art laundry as part of its new operations.

The new laundry is two kilometres away from the hospital, on old Milford Road, with part of the laundry having been refurbished and new areas constructed, at a cost of $27.4M. The core equipment of five industrial-type washing machines, five dryers, two automatic ironers, two boilers and other supporting pieces cost another $10.5M.

For the past eight years, while the old laundry was out of service, linen from the hospital and the 19 health centres around the island was transported twice a week to the Mount Hope Hospital, to be cleaned at no cost to the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA).

Operations at the laundry commenced on 21 April, and the laundry was officially commissioned at a ceremony held on Monday 28 April by Chief Secretary Orville London and Health and Social Services Secretary Assemblyman Claudia Groome-Duke.

At that ceremony, TRHA CEO Paula Chester-Cumberbatch disclosed that the first paying customer at the laundry was the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort, which brought in linen over the Easter weekend.

She also said that the laundry had the capacity to not only serve the Tobago health sector but also the regional health authorities in Trinidad, and that the Tobago hospitality industry would be encouraged to use the facilities.