Opposition unhappy with delays at CRH
OPPOSITION spokesman on health and wellness Dr Morais Guy says the People’s National Party is not pleased with the pace of construction at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in St James, despite the assurances from the minister.
“Despite the money spent on project management consultancy and changes to internal management controls, and the many assurances, allocations, adjustments and re-adjustments to the contract, the CRH continues in its delay and is unlikely to meet its completion deadline of 2022/2023 financial year,” Dr Guy said in his contribution to the sectoral debate at Gordon House Wednesday.
He said Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton had offered yet another assessment of the work at CRH and has now assured residents of western Jamaica that the hospital would become a source of pride, but questioned when work will be completed.
Tufton had stated that the country is now entering phase 2B of the project, which will include demolition and structural repairs to floors one to six and installation of roofs on floors three and six.
But Guy said: “We are also now preparing to go to the international market for a contractor for the third and final phase to totally rehabilitate and equip all 10 floors. All fancy words, because when you look in the 2021-2022 fiscal year allocation, only $1.3 billion has been made available for Cornwall Regional Hospital and $1.14 billion for the fiscal year 2022-2023.”
He said that it was the Opposition’s estimation that these allocations will be insufficient to do the work.
“There is plenty of blame to go around, starting with the minister who has given several missed deadlines and [is] now fearful of offering another,” he said. However, he admitted that “the contractors are not without fault for certain aspects of the delay”.
In the meantime, he said that the people of western Jamaica continue to “suffer the indignity of poor and non-existent critical medical services”.
“Every missed deadline adds to the waste of public funds, and no one seems willing to take responsibility to abort the sewer of waste at CRH,” Dr Guy said.
