Governor Duncan Taylor continued his exploration of his new home by taking a tour of the Cayman Islands Hospital last Thursday.

Health Services Authority CEO Lizzette Yearwood, who led the governor and wife Marie-Beatrice on the tour, convinced them to get H1N1 swine flu jabs after introducing them to a young man who had spent several weeks on a respirator in the Critical Care Unit due to the H1N1 virus.

Both offered their arms to nursing staff in the foyer of the hospital for the vaccination injections just before leaving after an hour-long visit.

During their tour, they visited the forensic laboratory where the skeletal remains of a man’s body found on land by Bobby Thompson Way in late January were being examined.

Pathologist Bruce Hyma explained to the governor that police and forensics staff were closing in on the man’s identity and were comparing earlier X-rays of who they suspected it might be with the remains.

The Taylors were also given a tour of the maternity ward, which was full to capacity with 13 mothers, as well as the dialysis, mental health, paediatric, and public health units.

Speaking at the completion of the tour, the latest in a series of visits to government and private institutions throughout Cayman since his arrival last month, Governor Taylor said he was “very impressed” with the staff and facilities at the hospital.

“We were quite struck by how calm and under control everything appears to be here, which is always a reassuring feeling in a hospital,” he said.

He said the hospital reminded him of health facilities in the United Kingdom.

This was not his first visit to the Cayman Islands Hospital. He said one of his first calls when he landed in Cayman last month was to a doctor to find out about getting treatment for a herniated disc in his back.

He has been receiving laser treatment at the hospital’s physiotherapy unit for his back. He has also been regularly swimming along Governor’s Beach outside his home to exercise his back, and said he plans to enter the annual Flowers Sea Swim.

During his tour of the hospital, the governor stopped frequently to shake hands with and chat to patients and visitors.