New elevator commissioned into service at Victoria Jubilee Hospital
A new state-of-the-art elevator was officially commissioned into service at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) in downtown Kingston on Tuesday.
The project was undertaken by the National Health Fund (NHF) as part of a $143-million initiative to instal eight elevators in hospitals across the South Eastern Regional Health Authority (SERHA).
With the installation, the hospital now has two lifts, which will provide for quicker and easier movement between floors for staff, patients and visitors to the public health facility.
Minister of state in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, who officially commissioned the elevator into service, told JIS News that it will assisting in boosting the delivery of care at VJH.
“It is going to be of great help to the Victoria Jubilee Hospital. The hospital is the largest women’s hospital in Jamaica. It sees over 7,000 mothers delivering babies on an annual basis so you can imagine the importance of these two [functioning] elevators,” she noted.
“As you can imagine, a pregnant mother trying to climb some stairs once the elevator is out is not something we would want to see happening at our hospitals, and so we are very grateful that we now have two working elevators,” she added.
Cuthbert-Flynn said that the NHF will play a critical role in the servicing of the machinery for approximately two years.
Acting director of nursing services, Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Andrea Dawkins-Powell, said she is pleased with the new lift.
“It will assist in getting the mothers to and from the various wards. We appreciate the gesture,” she said, adding that it will also assist staff in undertaking their daily tasks.
Director of projects, institutional benefits and facilities management, NHF, Orette Clarke, said other elevators will be supplied and installed at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), Spanish Town Hospital and Bustamante Hospital for Children.
“We have in the island, now, the remaining seven elevators and over the next three months, we will be installing all elevators at the various sites,” he said.
He said the installation process at the Bustamante Hospital for Children is slated to be completed within the next five weeks.
“Once we have completed Bustamante, we will be moving on to KPH and Spanish Town Hospital,” he said.
