Many still reminisce on the heyday of the Linstead Public Hospital (LPH) when it offered pristine treatment and had polished infrastructure. However, over the years things have deteriorated as the hospital has suffered many challenges.

But this year, as the hospital celebrates 100 years of continued service, the LPH has begun to chart it’s journey back to the days of glory with a $76-million renovation and expansion slated to be completed by this month’s end.“Some members of the community will tell you that they have seen more glory days in Linstead and they are looking forward to that coming back because at one time they had so many services here. They had the operating theatre up and running and only serious cases had to be transferred to the Spanish Town [Hospital],” Camile Wallen Panton, acting chief executive officer of the LPH said, pointing out that some were services were discontinued.The hospital, which was built in 1917, once acted as a treatment centre for tuberculosis cases prior to the construction of the National Chest Hospital. In 1953 it was upgraded to hospital status, at which time the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit was built. As years went by more buildings were added to the facility to include staff residence, and general medical and surgical services were provided to the community.“In recent years the services are coming back, for instance we have the laboratory service [which] we did not have before. That is a new service that came on in 2012. Then we have X-ray that was around before and stopped for more than 10 years; it came back in March 2015,” Wallen Panton pointed out. “We have our physiotherapy as a new service that’s supposed to be starting this year. As soon as the A&E [unit] is finished, then we will have an area that we can have as the physiotherapy department. So we are growing.“We want to be able to treat our patients more because we have the professionals who are able to treat them, but it’s just that they do not have the required equipment available. We are trying to get them [and] as soon as those implements are in place then only serious cases will need to be transferred,” Wallen Panton noted.The renovation and expansion of the hospital’s A&E unit will result in the addition of a waiting area, parking areas, nebulisation station, examination bays, the realignment of the ambulance bay and triage area. The unit will also be getting a mini operating theatre, paediatric ward, electrocardiogram room, an isolation room, and a registration and medical records area.The hospital CEO spoke highly of the construction of the administrative block which now houses the administrative staff, the matron, deputy matron and senior medical officer.“Before this development, the hospital had 52 beds. However, because of the redevelopment of A&E, we’ve had to downsize. Our maternity department has had to be transferred to Spanish Town (hospital), leaving us with 28 beds,” Wallen Panton noted.“We have 28 beds, but I can tell you that in many cases, A&E observation is just overflowing — the amount of patients that have to be sitting in chairs — because there isn’t enough bed space. So when A&E is completed we will have 70 beds, as we will take back our maternity, plus we will have some additional bed space in that area,” she added.“On completion of A&E, we are expected to have 16 medical doctors. Currently we have 10 medical doctors and you have to understand that its 24-hour operations and its three shifts. So we have 10 doctors covering three shifts and you have to understand that they do need their day off; we have to take into consideration leave and so forth, so it’s really demanding.”The hospital she pointed out, sees over 2,000 patients each month. It is a major referral centre for Spanish Town, Kingston Public, National Chest hospitals and the Bustamante Hospital for Children.Now under the umbrella of the South East Regional Authority (SERHA), the hospital is classified as a Type C facility with 50 beds. It serves five parishes: St Catherine, Clarendon, St Mary, St Ann, and St Andrew. Ten health centres refer cases to LPH; these are the Bog Walk, Troja, Guy’s Hill, Ewarton, Glengoffe, Lluidas Vale, Linsetad, Riversdale, Treadways, and Redwood health centres.