SAGICOR Foundation has partnered with Boss Furniture to donate 30 new beds to St Joseph’s Hospital in Kingston, which will increase the hospital’s capacity to aid in the fight against COVID-19.

St Joseph’s hospital has been operating as a COVID-19 quarantine facility since the start of the pandemic to assist persons who are unable to effectively quarantine at home.

Speaking at the recent official handover, the hospital’s CEO Leon Dixon noted that the donation will better equip the institution to facilitate quarantining.

“With this donation, we will be able to potentially accommodate more isolation cases as well as more patients from other hospitals that are not in critical need, so that they can be monitored here,” said Dixon.

“We appreciate the support from Boss Furniture and Sagicor Foundation for putting together this donation of beds. It has increased our capacity to play our part in this pandemic by allowing us to lessen the burden on the major hospitals so that they can focus on more critical cases,” added Dixon.

The hospital received 30 new, specialised, hospital-grade mattresses and 30 bed bases valued at $1.5 million courtesy of the corporate companies. The items were presented by Alysia White, executive director of the Sagicor Foundation, and Omar Azan, Boss Furniture’s chairman and co-founder.

Azan said he was delighted when the Sagicor team approached him with the request to make beds to be donated to the hospital, as he saw it as an opportunity to help.

“When the Sagicor Foundation reached out to ask me if I could produce some hospital beds urgently for St Joseph’s, and whether we’d be able to help with the cost, I said I’ll match whatever Sagicor is putting towards it,” said Azan.

He noted that his team was happy to partner on yet another donation, following a contribution of mattresses valued at $1 million to support the 2020 Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run beneficiaries.

“We’re not a huge company, but we are a Jamaican company that loves Jamaica and Jamaican people, so wherever we can help out we always try to help,” Azan added.

President and CEO of Sagicor Group Jamaica, Christopher Zacca commended the partnership as he noted that the private sector’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic will be critical in determining how quickly, and how well, Jamaica recovers.

“Whether it’s partnerships like these that directly boost our health-care facilities, donations of educational equipment to reduce learning loss while our children are out of school, or aiding in the vaccination effort like we have been doing under the Private Sector Vaccine Initiative (PSVI), we all have a part to play in helping Jamaica to recover – and Sagicor is pleased to be doing our part,” Zacca said.

He pointed out that the decision to donate beds to the hospital was in alignment with one of the foundation’s primary areas of focus – to advance the quality of health care in Jamaica.

According to Zacca, the foundation sought to assist in resolving the current shortage of beds in hospitals due to an influx in COVID-19 cases.

“Sagicor Foundation is always willing to play our part in improving health care in Jamaica, and this is just one area [in which] we could help to alleviate some of the pressure on our health-care system.”