Health-care facilities in western Jamaica get shot in the arm

Sheena Gayle, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Patients and employees at the three major public health-care facilities in western Jamaica will see major improvements in the infrastructure and patient-record confidentiality in four months, through a multimillion-dollar deal.

The Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), Mount Salem Health Centre, and Savanna-la-mar Hospital Medical Ward are benefactors of a $48-million allocation by the Ministry of Health.

The work on these projects is to be completed by December.

"Health-care delivery presents a challenge for all governments, whether in developing countries or the developed world," Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson said during the contract signing at CRH last weekend.

"The absence of fiscal space in our budget has made us aware that we have to do things differently in this era, and with less, we have to do more."

CRH's director of maintenance and operations, Orett Clarke, outlined that the hospital's kitchen is oversubscribed by 150 patients each day since January 2011 as it caters for approximately 500 patients per day.

Well-needed intervention

"The project consists of refurbishing the existing kitchen to meet public-health standards for hygiene and to meet the hospital's demand for patient meals," he said.

"Also, there will be an installation and modification of existing drainage system in the kitchen to accommodate new equipment and the modification to the existing kitchen in a bid to improve the food flow in the area and the establishment."

The work at the CRH kitchen will end a 16-year lull in lack of maintenance that allowed the structure to deteriorate to levels that are of public-health concerns.

Mount Salem Health Centre has seen increased workload and outgrown space for the medical records department and the waiting area, Clarke confirmed.

As such, a portion of the multimillion-dollar contract will allow patients to be treated in a timely manner, offer a more systematic and confidential method of patients' medical records and a better work environment for the health-care workers.

"The hospital in Savanna-la-Mar will see significant improvement as well as the project will increase the bed capacity of the medical ward from 48 beds to 72, create additional examination rooms, upgrade patient and staff bathrooms, build isolation areas for infection control and creating a patient dining area," added Clarke.

'The absence of fiscal space in our budget has made us aware that we have to do things differently in this era, and with less, we have to do more.'