AS the Kingston Public Hospital marks its 240th anniversary today, administrators and medical doctors are calling for a public-private partnership to address some of the institution’s challenges.

The stories of overcrowding, long waiting hours and lack of equipment are all too familiar.

In fact, as Dr Junior Green, a resident in the Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Department, puts it, in the same way that Bustamante Hospital for Children has ‘Shaggy’, KPH needs about three ‘Shaggys’.

International recording artiste Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell, through the Shaggy Make a Difference Foundation, has since 2009 been raising funds to assist the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St Andrew.

“I think that if some of the people who have benefited from KPH should return and show their gratitude… to foster a relationship between the public and private sector… I think that would help,” he said.

Although the staff face limitations almost daily, they make the best use of the resources available to them to provide much-needed services.

“I have seen many situations where we are able to save a life. Where a person gets stabbed in the heart and come to A&E (Accident and Emergency unit) and they open their chest in A&E, push a finger in and the surgeon is probably on the bed with the patient with his finger plugging that hole until they reach the (operating) theatre,” Green shared.

“When they get to the theatre and get the patient to us, we do what we do best and oftentimes those patients are alive after losing their entire blood volume, not once but probably twice or even three times, and they still walk out of there,” he recounted.

Dr Green was among KPH administrators and medical doctors speaking with the

Jamaica Observer at their North Street, Kingston, location yesterday.

The KPH, which according to the institution’s Senior Medical Officer Dr Natalie Whylie is the largest facility of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, is the final referral centre for Jamaica, the English-speaking Caribbean and the diaspora. It was founded on December 14, 1776.

She said the hospital offers a wide range of services and sees as many as 2,000 patients per day.

“We see almost 90,000 patients in our Accident and Emergency unit per year, so we are a big deal, not a small deal,” Dr Whylie said, adding that close to 80,000 surgical procedures are done at the hospital annually.

She pointed out that although KPH is known for trauma and surgical expertise, it is also a major centre for training and research.

With 240 years under the institution’s belt, the administrators are winding down their year of celebration and will today mark its birthday with ice cream and cake.

“December 14 is our 240th birthday; so birthday, as you know, means birthday party. So we’ll be having a formal function (today), which begins at 10 in the morning to recognise and highlight the contribution of the hospital.

“At 2:00 pm we will be having an outside broadcast done by one of the radio stations, and we’ll also be having an open day, so the various departments are actively sprucing up and fixing up to showcase and highlight their contribution to the hospital,” she said.

Dr Whylie told the

Observer that the hospital’s annual carol service will be on Thursday, complete with carolling through the hospital to bring cheers to patients. This will be followed by the annual staff appreciation luncheon on Friday to celebrate those who have helped the hospital to be the institution it is today.

But with 240 years down, going forward, the administrators are looking to make the institution the place of choice for health-care needs.

“We are going to be embarking on our 10-year redevelopment/expansion plan for the Kingston Public Hospital and Victoria Jubilee Hospital… and certainly that will involve looking at the infrastructure so that we cannot just meet the existing needs of the Jamaican people but also position the hospital to beyond first-world standards,” Dr Whylie said.

With no start date yet, the hospital’s new chief executive officer Errol Greene explained that the team is now strategising to make the 10-year plan a reality.

“We are putting the strategies together, we are developing that and you know a critical thing is funding, so we first have to visualise, strategise and then go after the funding to take this thing on,” he told the

Observer yesterday.

Greene said additional land has already been identified for the expansion.