IT is located in a clearly defined silence zone.

Yet the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) appears to be under siege from loud noises emerging from homes and establishments in close proximity to the institution, the largest in the English-speaking Caribbean.

One of the latest breaches of the Noise Abatement Act occurred last Thursday evening while patients rested after having supper. A sound system from the nearby Charles Street area was blaring loud music into the night, with some patients becoming visibly uneasy while this reporter observed proceedings.

“I am in ward 1a and I am being disturbed by the noise,” patient and noted veteran attorney-at-law, Delano ‘Zack’ Harrison, QC, told the Sunday Observer. “I did not expect that you could have a dance hall next door to a hospital. And they were not even playing soothing music like the Drifters,” Harrison tried to make light of it.

Another patient was clearly furious.

“This is foolishness. “This has to be a Third World mentality. How can you be playing music so loud close to a hospital? Only in Jamaica can something like this happen,” he fumed.

Other sources say that loud music is played at times throughout the day, late into the night and in the early morning in the environs of the hospital.

A nurse who asked not to be named because she was not authorised to speak said that that situation was not unusual.

“This is a regular thing around here. Some of the people in this area just do not care about the patients. They play their music loud anytime they want to and you can see that it affects the patients,” she said.

The playing of loud music in the vicinity of the KPH appears to be a recent practice, according to one official who spent several years working at the hospital.

“I can’t recall that happening while I was there, but I am sure that something like that would affect the patients,” former chief medical officer of the KPH Dr Trevor McCartney said in an interview.

Section two, subsection three of the Noise Abatement Act states explicitly: “No person shall, on any private premises or in any public place at any time of day or night – sing, or sound or play upon any musical or noisy instrument; or operate, or permit or cause to be operated, any loudspeaker, microphone or any other device for the amplification of sound, in such a manner that the sound is audible beyond a distance of one hundred metres from the source of such sound and is reasonably capable of causing annoyance to persons in the vicinity so, however, that where during the period specified in subsection (4) such sound is audible beyond that distance in the vicinity of any dwelling house, hospital, nursing home, infirmary, hotel or guest house, such sound shall be presumed to cause annoyance to persons in

that vicinity.”

Section 4 gives the relevant times when noisy instrument can be played, with the approval of the Superintendent of Police for the area. Under the Act, unless otherwise granted permission, playing music in public places is not supposed to extend beyond 2 am.

Sources told the paper that hospital officials feared reprisals, which they believe could come in the form of physical harm to employees if they tried to alter the entertainment package of citizens of the area.

Although a police post is located close to the entrance of the institution, personnel on duty would not necessarily leave their location to warn offenders of the noise abatement act, that they were violating a law, even though the post is sometimes reinforced by the presence of soldiers.

The KPH falls within the reach of the Kingston West police division, whose commanding officer, Superintendent Delroy Hewitt said that he was aware of the problem, but argued that the hospital needed to get serious about it.

“I have not got complaints from the patients about the noise, but the hospital administration has complained to me about it,” Hewitt said. “We had indicated to the hospital administration that we could lock off all music permanently by simply not granting permits to stage things like dances and the hospital told us ‘no’. I believe that they are afraid of offending the people who play the music.

“The police cannot guarantee that the people will play music at a level that will not affect the patients, so we at times patrol the areas to see that the noise levels are kept low. But the hospital must decide what it wants. The hospital does not want the music on, and it does not want it off. It would be simple for us not to issue any more permits,” Hewitt said.

Chief executive of the KPH, Beulah Stephens did not respond to messages left for her on Friday. The CEO was said to be on a morning engagement at the Spanish Town Hospital and upon a further inquiry later in the day, the Sunday Observer was told that she was in a meeting.

One senior hospital official who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity said that the hospital was facing what he called a small crisis.

“We are caught between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “I know that we have asked the police to speak with some of the people in the area to keep the noise down, but at the same time we don’t want the people to think that we want to stop them from enjoying their music and having fun. It’s just that some of the people appear not to care about the patients.

“Sometimes you hear gunshots from all angles, but that is something that many of us have got used to. The trouble is that sometimes you don’t know if there is a shoot-out between police and gunmen, a gun salute, somebody getting shot, or the fellows servicing their weapons,” the executive said.

The KPH, regarded by several medical officials as offering the best surgical treatment for the island’s sick, is located in a section of West Kingston that is known for bone-hard violence and irregular criminal activity. Although the hospital itself has not come under attack from unruly elements, it remains the repository of criminal misconduct, which has resulted from wide scale shooting that has led to deaths and serious injury.

A structural improvement programme has enhanced the hospital’s image in the eyes of the public, but a huge security presence at the institution’s points of entry has allowed it to maintain the stained stigma as a place to avoid. It remains the only hospital in Jamaica that has such an elaborate security detail.

Officials said that the murder of patients on the wards by gunmen in the past and the risk posed by those ailing from would-be attackers, had forced the hospital’s administration to introduce tough admission measures.

Visiting hours are usually strictly adhered to and all visitors to wards are normally required to go through security checks, including being frisked with metal detectors.