Five wards being renovated at Spanish Town Hospital
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Five wards at the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine are currently being renovated at a cost of $20 million
The money for the project is being provided by the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA).
Ward 3 was reopened last month following renovation activities, which included: repainting the ward, upgrading its lighting, meshing its windows, installing ceiling fans, carpentry work and masonry work.
Chief Executive Officer, Spanish Town Hospital, Dwayne Francis, told JIS News that similar work will be done on Wards 2, 4, 5 and 6 with the money.
“It is our aim to improve the aesthetics on the wards and take the opportunity to address any infrastructural challenges that may be on the wards,” Francis said.
He said damaged ceiling “beds” will be removed and replaced, ward areas will be meshed, front doors on the wards will be replaced with new doors, wards will be repainted, and ceiling fans and additional hand wash stations will be installed.
“It’s an ongoing process for us to beautify the institution [and] to create an environment that is welcoming to patients and staff. We want to continue to improve other departments as we go along,” he said.
The hospital was also the recent recipient of two other major donations – a brand new elevator from the National Health Fund, which cost approximately $13 million, and was officially handed over on July 26; and the European Union-funded Programme for the Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality (PROMAC) also donated funds, which are currently being used to construct a new High Dependency Unit (HDU) at the hospital.
The goal is to ensure that mothers and children have access to quality healthcare through infrastructural improvements that will reduce pregnancy-related mortality and morbidity.
The new HDU will be adjacent to the maternity ward at the hospital and will consist of two facilities, a maternal unit and a neonatal unit.
The maternal unit will have five sections for mothers who are in need of critical care and an isolation area, while the neonatal unit will have six individual sections and two isolated areas for eight critically ill babies.
