Mandeville, Manchester — Part proceeds from the recent (May 3) annual Men Who Cook fundraiser of the Lions Club of Mandeville will be used to assist in undertaking the estimated $3 million cost of a Histopathology Microscope.

The announcement was made at a recent launch by the service club.

The microscope, according to Lions Club member and Chairman of the Men Who Cook Planning Committee Dr Clifton Reid, is necessary for a range of conditions where tissue samples are taken to find out whether or not an ailment is present.

The purchase of the Histopathology Microscope will form the first phase of efforts to establish a Pathology Lab at the Mandeville Regional Hospital that will also benefit other health facilities within the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA).

Reid told the Jamaica Observer that funding from the Men Who Cook event of the Mandeville Lions Club is not yet tallied and as such the exact figure that will be donated is not yet determined.

Other Lions Clubs in Region 1– Manchester, Clarendon, St Elizabeth, St Catherine, Westmoreland, St James and Trelawny have committed to also contribute to the microscope project, he said.

With no pathology lab now in the Southern Health Region to serve the parishes of Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon, samples have had to be transported to the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Western Jamaica.

Regional director of the SRHA Michael Bent said that sending the samples to Cornwall Regional every Wednesday is very time-consuming, restricts the flexibility in doing the job and puts added pressure on the fleet of vehicles available as pick-ups are made to different health facilities in the Southern Region before that journey is taken.

Dr Collette Hall who is the pathologist for the Southern Regional Health Authority but based at the Cornwall Regional Hospital also has to travel to the Region as necessary to carry out her duties.

“There are problems associated with this (lack of Pathology Lab in the Southern Region) namely turnaround time,” she said.

Hall said that the turnaround time for results is currently not at an internationally accepted standard.

“In order for us to commit to the mandate of reducing cancer incidents, not only in this region but in Jamaica, we have to have a fully equipped and staffed anatomical pathology laboratory in this region,” she said.

Bent said that while there are “blueprints” to guide the development of the Mandeville Regional Hospital the plans were not finalised.

He said, however, that the assurance of assistance from the Lions Club of Mandeville has “fast forward” the plans for the expensive venture of establishing a pathology lab.

Bent said that the lab will be located on a section of approximately four acres of land adjacent the public health facility that was received from the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing.

The additional land is an important part of the strategic plan for the development of the hospital, according to leaders within the Southern Regional Health Authority.

Reid said that other fundraisers will assist in the renovation of one of the existing buildings on the property to house the Pathology Lab as the Lions Club of Mandeville continue its efforts to contribute to varying community projects.

In the interim, he said, that when the Histopathology Microscope is purchased it will be place at the Cornwall Regional Hospital from which the SRHA pathologist operates.

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson has also committed to ensuring that the Pathology Lab Project for the Southern Health Region comes to fruition.

“I am willing to make representation to the National Health Fund (NHF) to come up with monies that will hasten the period that it would take (to put the lab in place),” he told the audience at the launch.

“We cannot continue to feel comfortable in an environment where it is taking you a year or more at one point, to get back results of specimens…,” Ferguson added.

The Lions Club of Mandeville is not a first time benefactor to the Mandeville Regional Hospital.

Men Who Cook is a signature event of the Club and over the years, organisers say, some “reasonably large” donations have been made to the public health facility from the event.