Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, has declared that the redevelopment of the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine represents the largest infrastructure development in public health in the nation’s history.

Tufton made the disclosure at St Catherine’s Open House and Exhibition at the Church of the Open Bible in Twickenham Park in St Catherine on Wednesday.

According to Tufton, the journey in overhauling the Spanish Town Hospital which was built 70 years ago, has been years in the making.

He said the tender process for the redevelopment process of the medical facility was launched recently.

The Spanish Town Hospital, said Tufton, will receive the largest infrastructure works of the Health Systems Strengthening Programme being implemented with the support of the Inter-America Development Bank (IDB) and the European Union (EU).

“The work will see the construction of a six-storey modern facility with an estimated area of 17,633.68 square metres, including several points of access for staff and patients, and a skywalk to link existing wards,” Tufton outlined.

Additionally, upgrades will incorporate areas for accident and emergency, a radiology department, outpatient services, pharmacy, endoscopy unit, surgical suite, an intensive care unit, laboratory, medical records, staff lounge and underground staff parking, among other things.

The minister said that with the launch of the tender process completed, construction works at the Spanish Town Hospital is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year, with completion projected for the 2026-2027 financial year.

The delivery construction period anticipated is 24 months, with an additional 12 months for “the defects liability period”, according to Tufton.

“Not only is the investment in the redevelopment of the hospital the largest of the more than US$50 million-dollar Health Systems Strengthening Programme, it is also one of the largest investments that will be made in health facilities in Jamaica’s history,” he said.

“… It is significant. It demonstrates just how serious we are about ensuring that our population receives the standard of care that they deserve,” Tufton indicated.

He noted, also, that the overhaul of the current building at Spanish Town Hospital is timely, as the demand on the medical facility is significant.

Figures cited by the minister suggested that there were more than 32,000 patients seen at the hospital’s accident and emergency unit in 2021.

“Those seen in outpatient clinic numbered more than 40,000, even as 17,000 patients were admitted to the facility and some 1,947 surgeries performed.

“These numbers tell of the kind of demand currently faced by our facility and which we are determined to continue to meet and to exceed,” Tufton stated.

Meanwhile, the redevelopment of one of island’s largest hospitals will also involve

improvements to the information communication and technology (ICT) infrastructure, for enhanced access to medical services, providing, among other things, electronic access to patients’ medical records.

“Recently, the Spanish Town Hospital was provided with secured WiFi access, which is available to staff and visitors to the hospital, as well as with the necessary equipment to breathe life into the electronic health records,” said Tufton.

He explained that those specific initiatives

form part of a larger ICT infrastructure buildout to the tune of US$8.4 million at the Spanish Town facility, and 104 others.

“The work has included the installation of workstations and the training of clinical and medical records staff in the use and security of the computers. So far, 13 of the 105 facilities have benefitted,” Tufton shared.

In the meantime, Tufton disclosed that several health centres will benefit from physical upgrades, the purchase of new equipment to support the delivery of care and the design and implementation of an information systems for health (IS4H), under the Health Systems Strengthening Programme.

The health centres are: Greater Portmore, Old Harbour, and St Jago Park, all in St Catherine; St Ann’s Bay, Brown’s Town, and Ocho Rios in St Ann; and May Pen East, May Pen West, Mocho and Chapelton, all in Clarendon.

Physical upgrades of the St Ann’s Bay and May Pen Hospitals are also to benefit from significant physical upgrades under the Health Systems Strengthening Programme, Tufton stated.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

CABINET NOTES: The Cabinet invited Purcell Special Security Firm and the Director of Education to address it on the issue of school security.

The Director of Education, last week addressed Cabinet and raised the issue of security of the school plants; thieves are breaking into Government schools damaging windows, doors and other infrastructure and stealing furniture, computers, tablets and any other valuables which they could find.

The thieves have rummaged through the desks of principals, scattering documents, papers and books on the floor, and engaged in other activities that have hampered the schools’ productivity and cause all users a feeling of insecurity.

The Director was persuaded that if the thieves believe that they would be caught then they would be less likely to engage in the anti-social/criminal behaviour.

The Cabinet last week agreed to have security cameras installed on the perimeter of the buildings and also within certain offices that are attractive to thieves. The Cabinet also accepted the proposal of building strong-rooms or large safes on the compound of each school where highly-valuable items could be stored each night.

Mr. Purcell was accompanied to the Cabinet meeting by his accountant and another official of his firm. He pledged to do everything he possibly can to ensure that the schools, when opening on Monday 5th September, will have human security available at all the Government schools across Antigua.

He noted that his firm employs approximately 1,000 men and women and that he has a very large payroll to meet each week. He spoke of the inherent challenge that his firm experiences with so many employees and noted that the deployment of security staff is a capital-intensive venture.

The Cabinet made a pledge to provide Special Security with sufficient resources to enable Mr. Purcell to dispatch security workers on Monday morning to all schools.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Works continues to source the cameras and the security software required in order to make the 37 government schools less vulnerable to thieves and trespassers. Advice and support will also come from the Ministry of Information/Technology.

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El presidente del Colegio de Médicos Cirujanos de Puerto Rico, Dr. Carlos Díaz, confirmó en RADIO ISLA que el hospital HIMA de Fajardo cerró su unidad neonatal y su sala de parto.

Según el Dr. Carlos Díaz, esto se debe a la fuga de médicos, la falta de material para atender a los pacientes y el hecho de que no le pagaban a los galenos. Carlos Díaz expuso que mujeres cuyos partos sean de alto riesgo, tendrán que atenderse en hospitales de Caguas, San Juan o alguna otra área. Carlos Díaz señaló que esa área es sumamente importante ya que también atiende a pacientes de Vieques y Culebra.

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Por su parte, el alcalde de Fajardo, José Aníbal Meléndez, detalló que su administración sabía que esta institución médica estaba enfrentando problemas económicos, pero que no fue hasta ayer que se enteró del cierre de esas secciones del lugar. 

El primer mandatario municipal explicó que desde hace un tiempo, ese hospital no estaba atendiendo a pacientes del Plan Vital, entiéndase La Reforma. “Sabíamos de los problemas con las aseguradoras”, expuso Díaz.

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