The local project director for Dr Devi Shetty’s proposed East End hospital and medical school has rejected as “factually incorrect “ a highly critical study of the scheme by a Cayman policy group.

“I’m not even going to respond to this,” said Gene Thompson, leader of local efforts to create the Narayana Hospital, medical college and assisted-living centre on 200 acres in East End’s High Rock area.

Authors of the study, he said, had never approached him to gain an understanding of the project, due to break ground in August for the initial phase of the $2 billion, 15-year project.

“It is so factually incorrect, so far off … How can someone deal with it on the basis of never sitting with me, without addressing it with me or understanding the financials?” he asked.

Recently published, the report by “The Cayman Islands Institute for Public Policy” appears to be dated between June and October 2011, although it bears no firm indication of when it was written or by whom, how the group is constituted or funded, who is involved or how it originated.

A Facebook page says only that the institute is “a Cayman Islands non-profit organisation established to provide independent analysis on matters of public policy and national interest,” while its “Guide to the Dr. Shetty MOU” carries no signature or indication of how the research was done. Efforts to contact the group through its “contact us” listing went unanswered yesterday.

Dr Shetty’s people point out there is no Memorandum of Understanding but instead a fully legal agreement has been signed.

The 11-page study concludes that Cayman is likely to lose “a minimum of US$12 million annually in potential revenue, works and services for the next 100 years”, and questions “massive concessions” made by government to attract the project.

Mostly critical of government, the study laments the abdication of immigration and legal controls, and says the project “has no real long-term financial benefit” for Cayman, “save for those within the inner circle of this proposed venture.”

Dr Steve Tomlinson, founder of Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital, has long questioned the Shetty proposals, worrying about medical standards and quality of care.

“It seems to be a two-tiered system,” he said whereby medical qualifications for doctors at the Shetty hospital will not be assessed by the Medical and Dental Council, but “apparently, by politicians, by the government, and they seem to be listening”.

“They had to change the law to allow Indian qualifications,” he said.

Dr Tomlinson denied any affiliation with the Public Policy Institute, saying only “they are a group of young people” commenting on current issues. ”It’s one of the things they do. I am not a member,” he said.

Mr Thompson pointed to a number of inaccuracies in the study, however, agreeing, for example, the institute had mischaracterised changes to medical malpractice laws, claiming government had “capped the general damages awards that a court may give to a victim of medical negligence in Cayman.”

The $500,000 cap, legislated last year, refers only to awards for “pain and suffering”, not to damages, which remain at the court’s discretion.

The study also appears to err in describing the phasing of the project.

Dr Shetty has said the August groundbreaking is for an initial 140-bed hospital, to be expanded ultimately to a 2,000-bed institution, accompanied by associated facilities.

Authors of the study, appear to accept that the first phase is the limit of the project: “While a model 140-150 beds is more in line with existing medical facilities (domestically and throughout North America),” they write, “this is concerning as the MOU specifically requires that Phase One must consist of a 2,000 bed multi-specialty hospital.”

Mr Thompson dismissed the criticisms: “This is just another grandstanding effort, and we are going to carry on. We have a project to start, a hospital to build and lives to save. We are not going to stoop to this.”