MINISTER of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton says a 10-year strategic plan for renewal and rebuilding of the public health sector has started.

The plan which was first announced in 2018, and which is in keeping with the country’s Vision 2030 development plan and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, will cost the country between $27.2 billion and $31.2 billion to build out the public health infrastructure over the next five years.

“I am happy to report that we have started and we are making progress in the implementation of this plan,” Dr Tufton told the House of Representatives yesterday as he made his 2021/22 Sectoral Debate presentation.

Under the plan, “all hospitals, specialised care centres and support services are to be modernised to provide efficient and quality service in an aesthetically pleasing environment”.

“This Government has committed a significant capital expenditure of between US$205.7 and US$236.2 million (J$27.2 billion and $31.2 billion) to build out our public health infrastructure over the next five years and, we have begun,” he stated.

Tufton also reported that under the Health Systems Strengthening Programme, 11 of 13 health facilities have been designed, and are being reviewed for final approval. These include the Spanish Town Hospital, St Ann’s Bay Hospital, and May Pen Hospital.

“In addition, we have completed external upgrade designs for the University Hospital of the West Indies. Also, the Cornwall Regional Hospital and the Western Children and Adolescent Hospital in Montego Bay will continue their build-out this financial year,” Tufton stated.

Highlighting a few of the features of some of the upgrades, he said that the St Ann’s Bay Hospital, a type ‘B’ facility, has started to benefit from a $545-million upgrade and is in the design stage.

The hospital was built in 1929, with an initial capacity of 15 beds. It currently has 308 beds and, like the Spanish Town Hospital, there has been an increase in demand for clinical services due to population and health profile changes.

He said that the new upgrade will include physical and functional reorganisation of services, a new outpatient block, expansion of radiology and a new Intensive Care Unit.

“St Ann’s Bay Hospital will be restructured and built stronger and better to serve the people of St Ann and its environs,” the health minister said.

He said, too, that the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) has started to benefit from a $4.9 billion upgrade of building and equipment, now in the design stage. This is a type ‘A’ hospital, which at the time of its establishment in 1948 had an initial capacity of 200 beds, but which has been increased to 554 beds, he added.

“The upgrade will include a new six-storey, 120,000 square feet medical facility, which will accommodate an additional 40 medical and surgical beds, improvements to outpatient or ambulatory surgery, lecture rooms, conference rooms, and upgrading of the cardiology hybrid interventional surgery room and the neonatal intensive care and administrative department,” he said.

He noted that western Jamaica and, in particular, the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), has been a source of many challenges relating to the main hospital building.

“This has been a classic case of what can happen to our infrastructure, if we do not maintain them sufficiently while utilising them every day. They fall apart, no different from a motor car or the human body,” Tufton said.

“But let’s be clear. Even as we fix the CRH problems, the services being offered have continued, and that is what is most important to the citizens who need those services. During the last year CRH had more than 12,600 admissions, of which 7,500 were A&E admissions, performed over 8,000 emergency, elective, and outpatient department services,” the minister informed the House.

He said that the hospital did more than 300 inpatient operations, 1,385,366 laboratory tests, 10,980 haemodialysis sessions, 8,000 chemotherapy procedures and delivered more than 3,000 babies during the year.

“I would like to thank the management and staff of the CRH for their ongoing commitment and hard work to the people of Western Jamaica. I want to tell them that the CRH main building will be restored and will become a source of pride for Western Jamaica,” Tufton stated.