ANN-MARIE Gordon is convinced that had the Buff Bay Hospital been up and running, her son, Kamal Edwards, would not have died three weeks ago. According to Gordon, who lives in Buff Bay, she had to take the more than eight-mile journey to the Annotto Bay Hospital twice one day after Kamal began having trouble with his appendix.

Her son, she said, was initially given an injection and sent home. However, when his condition worsened, Gordon said she again had to make the long trip, but this time it was too late.

“By me tek him back down dere and dem tek him to theatre him was dead,” she told the Jamaica Observer North East.

Gordon’s tragic experience highlights the lack of a full hospital service for which residents of West Portland are yearning.

The absence of the critical health facility means that they have to travel many miles to either the Annotto Bay or Port Antonio hospital, sometimes with their loved ones on the brink of death, to get medical help.

Although only a type-four health centre, it now operates from the dilapidated two-storey building that once housed the Buff Bay Community Hospital. Scores of residents show up daily to see the only doctor on duty as many cannot afford the cost to travel out of the town to seek medical help.

A source at the Buff Bay Health Centre, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the clinic is overwhelmed by the many persons who show up daily for help.

“Sometime people are coming from as far as Blue Mountain and by the time dem reach is 4:30, and we close by then, so they have to continue all the way to Annotto Bay,” she said.

The facility, she explained further, was rationalised to a type-four health centre about eight years ago; however no one seems to know the reason for this decision.

Now, the facility — which has delivered hundreds of babies over the years — only offers post- and pre-natal care and other limited medical services to the large numbers of persons seeking treatment.

The source said, after the closure of the hospital, residents vandalised the facility, removing windows and doors.

“The building is not good, except for the small area that houses the clinic,” she said.

Residents of Claverty Cottage, a community nestled high in the hills above the Buff Bay Valley, have to pay as much as $7,000 to charter a taxi to get their sick to the Port Antonio or Annotto Bay hospital.

“You know how many mothers lose their baby and even them life on the long journey?” said Dorothy Russell, a resident of the neighbouring Chepstowe.

Russell said many persons cannot afford the additional $130 taxi fare to the Annotto Bay Hospital, having already paid $120 one-way from Chepstowe to Buff Bay.

She insisted that there was no justifiable reason for the closure of the hospital as it served a wide cross section of communities.

“It was a good hospital and the doctors there were very nice,” said Russell, who explained that she gave birth to three children at the then hospital.

More people, she said, now opt to go to Annotto Bay, instead of Port Antonio, putting further pressure on that facility.

“I went to the Annotto Bay Hospital last week and there was a lot of emergency cases coming in, so walk-in patients just had to sit and wait for a long time,” she said.

Residents, she said, were hopeful that the Buff Bay Hospital would have reopened after they signed a petition requesting this, however that hope has since faded.

Vivette Grey-Thomas, a resident of Buff Bay, said the hospital is urgently needed as the health centre is not adequate.

“I remember when we could go to the Buff Bay Hospital any time of day or night and get medical attention,” said Grey-Thomas, who gave birth to six children at the facility.

Then, she said, the hospital had a full-fledged operating theatre and could deal with just about most major medical conditions.

“Now, it is very hard for people to travel to Annotto Bay or Port Antonio, and so it is essential to have our own hospital here,” she said.

Added to that, Grey-Thomas said residents of Portland are sometimes refused service at Annotto Bay by staff who believe they should utilise the health facility in their parish.

“When we go to Annotto Bay dem don’t want to look at us because dem say we fi go Port Antonio, but some people, especially the elderly with arthritis, don’t like to climb the hill to go to Port Antonio Hospital,” she said.

Others, she said, simply cannot afford the $260 to get to Port Antonio and the added $50 taxi operators charge to transport persons up the hill.

Those hoping to be seen by the doctor at Buff Bay Health Centre have to leave home at dawn to get there ahead of the crowd.

“People have to go there from well early to get a number because them nah see no more than 30 persons each day,” she said.

She explained further that the lucky few who get to see the one doctor at the health centre are sometimes forced to travel to Port Antonio to have their prescriptions filled.