SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — It wasn’t only about the obvious need to constantly modernise and improve facilities used by the public.

Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson says when the decision was taken to transform the Santa Cruz Health Centre into a Centre of Excellence several considerations came into play, including community health profiles and population patterns.

“When we chose the Santa Cruz Health Centre it was a carefully thought-out decision,” Ferguson told a large audience at the recent ceremony to mark the completion of Phase One of the health centre project.

The minister said the ministry, having looked at the disease profile of the communities, noted that there were 9,993 curative visits to the health centre last year, while there were more than 24,000 visits to health centre for all the services.

“… We also looked at centrality and the scope for growth for communities [as] Santa Cruz is the most central town in the parish of St Elizabeth and midway between Mandeville Regional (hospital) and Black River hospital,” said Ferguson.

The health minister said the rapid growth of Santa Cruz over the years and projections that it will continue, as well as the existence of a well- developed transportation system, providing access to all of St Elizabeth, made the decision easy.

As a centre of excellence, the Santa Cruz Health Centre will be expected to ease the pressure on the Mandeville and Black River hospitals by providing “quality” primary health care services to residents of St Elizabeth as well as those on the border communities of neighbouring parishes.

It will offer a range of services, including laboratory, dental, maternal and child health, HIV, family planning, mental health, curative, cervical cancer screening, health promotion and education.

Phase one of the project was done at a cost of $25 million. The work included roof repairs, general refurbishing, electrical upgrading, alteration of dental service buildings, expansion of two doctors’ offices, expansion of the curative service building to house a larger laboratory and additional assessment rooms. Equipment worth $8.2 million was installed in the first phase.

Phase Two, for which ground was broken at the Phase One function, will cost $88 million and will involve construction of two buildings to house diagnostic services and maternal and child health clinics. There will be an expanded parking area, including an ambulance bay. According to Ferguson, there will be additional equipment for the centre, an investment in solar technology and water storage.

The $113-million cost of the entire project is being borne by the National Health Fund (NHF).

Santa Cruz apart, health centres of excellence are also being developed at Darliston in Westmoreland; Issac Barrant in St Thomas; and Claremont in St Ann.

The minister said the intention was to make the centres of excellence “one stop” facilities that would provide properly equipped pharmaceutical services also, “because it makes no sense you coming here and feel like you have to go to Black River or Mandeville…”

Efforts would also be made to make patients comfortable and relaxed for the good of everyone, including health care staff who bear the brunt when patients “get miserable”. “We want to see a 42-inch TV inside here; we want air conditioning inside of the place, we want good chairs inside of the place,” Ferguson said to cheers and applause.

He said that he would be recommending the establishment of management committees drawn from communities similar to those now serving hospitals for health centres.

The health minister, dubbed by Member of parliament for North East St Elizabeth Raymond Pryce as “a minister of action”, said the centre of excellence programme formed an important plank in the ruling People’s National Party’s (PNP)’s pre-election pledge in 2011 to address non-communicable illnesses.

In Jamaica, there had been a change in the disease profile “from a preponderance of communicable diseases to a tsunami of non- communicable diseases”, the minister said. Non-communicable illnesses, including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure, cancers and kidney problems, now account for 70 per cent of deaths in Jamaica annually, he said.

Through care and preventive education, comprehensive primary health-care services could significantly reduce the impact of such diseases, reduce the burden on hospitals and save the country huge sums, he said. Currently, Ferguson said, Jamaica spent in excess of $US170 million per annum on the treatment of non-communicable diseases.

“The Government is committed to the World Health Assembly resolution of 2012 to remove premature deaths from communicable diseases by 25 per cent by 2025,” he said.

Ferguson said the drive to improve primary health care was part of a transformational “mission” by the Government to improve every aspect of Jamaica’s health care including the provision of cheaper and easier access to cancer care.

“There is a particular treatment for breast cancer that is almost $200,000 per dose and you have to get 17-18 doses, that is almost $3.5 million -3.6 million. A full dose for radiation therapy is between $1.5 and $1.7 million right now. It is wiping out family savings and wiping out pension funds. We have to get it right,” he said.

And while health care for Jamaicans was of paramount importance, Ferguson reiterated his vision for a service that would also provide earnings from overseas visitors.

“Health must not be seen just as a social good for our people. It must be seen also as a contributor to the national economy and that is why health tourism is going to become a big item on my agenda,” he said.

Ferguson, who led the way during 2013 in the delivery of legislation to combat tobacco smoking — one of the leading causes of cancer — restated his commitment to the cause.

“No amount of challenge will deter me from my basic position and responsibility as the minister of health to protect the health of workers, non-smokers, our children and even smokers themselves,” Ferguson told his audience which included a large number of health workers based in Santa Cruz and beyond.

“We have to face the fact that over 70 per cent of cases of lung cancer in this country are caused by tobacco exposure, in addition to other types of cancers. Tobacco contains at least 69 cancer causing agents and other chemicals which when used in a particular way can cut an average life span by 10 to 15 years. Across the globe six million persons die annually from tobacco use; 600,000 thousand of that number from second-hand and third-hand smoking… smoke found in your settee, in your drapes, in your clothes, in your hair,” Ferguson said.