MONTEGO BAY, St James — Jody and Dwain’s only experience with the Cornwall Regional Hospital’s paediatric department has been at its current location, a section of the cramped nurses’ quarters. That’s where the Jamaica Observer recently caught up with the couple and their new-born child.

The nurses’ quarters also houses various wards, for both children and adults, a temporary fix until the highly-anticipated Western Adolescent and Paediatric Hospital is built and open to the public. It has a price tag of $5.7 billion and has been plagued by delays.

Jody had no idea a children’s hospital was being built. She was happy to get the news.

“I think it is a good idea as it will facilitate new mothers,” she said. “I am just waiting to see what will happen when it is completed.”

Dwain was just as receptive to the idea which he likened to the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston.

“It would be great for Montego Bay to have something like that, because remember Montego Bay is the second city of Jamaica,” he said, noting that the facility would be able to provide specialised care without the need to travel to the capital city.

The Western Adolescent and Paediatric Hospital was scheduled to be completed last year but work ground to a halt because of the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Workers on the project went back home, to China.

In January of last year Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton told the Observer that arrangements were being put in place for the arrival of a second team of Chinese workers. However, that timeline was missed.

When asked for an update in March, Dr Tufton again told the Observer, and later repeated in his sectoral debate, that the Chinese Government’s targeted resumption date was June.

“The Government of Jamaica does not have control over the build-out of this facility beyond a limited scope. We are required to put certain things in place, which we have for the most part. We have built a Chinese village for the workers. We have put in the infrastructure: electrical, the road [and] that sort of thing,” he explained then.

“So, the main work that is left to be done has to be done by the Chinese contractor who, because of COVID, went back to China. They are to be remobilised to come back. We would love it to start as early as possible but we have been told June. We are hoping that is, in fact, the case and once it starts, it will be done within 24 months.”

In June, the minister delivered the good news on his social media pages.

“Construction on the Western Regional Children and Adolescent Hospital has resumed after a break due to Covid-19,” he said.

“I am excited and happy for this project to be completed because I know it will be a welcomed addition and a game-changer for public health,” he added.

Ground was broken for the six-storey 220-bed hospital on the compound of the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Mount Salem on October 23, 2019.

Funding is being provided by the governments of Jamaica and the People’s Republic of China. The project is being managed by the Urban Development Corporation.

When completed, the state-of-the-art facility will be the only one of its kind in the Caribbean that will be able to treat children and adolescents up to 16 years old.