The 60-year-old Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital in Westmoreland, which has long overshot its 190-bed capacity, is to get some relief as one of three beneficiaries of this year’s Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run, which is seeking to rake in $100 million.

Dr Suman Vemu, the hospital’s chief medical officer, told this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange that the Type B hospital in western Jamaica will be utilising the windfall to alleviate the space challenge.

“As you know, the hospital is located in a space where there are a lot of motorbike accidents, and at the same time the community has outgrown the hospital. We have a long waiting line for surgeries, and what we are trying to do in the interim before expanding the hospital is to utilise the existing space to increase the turnover,” Dr Vemu said.

“So the way we cut down the hospital stay is by expanding the operating theatre. Currently, we have two operating theatres; we do around 50 surgeries per week,” Dr Vemu explained.

Noting that elective surgeries have had to be cancelled because of emergency cases in instances, he said having an expanded theatre will assist.

“In that way, we can reduce the hospital stay and reduce our patient load,” Dr Vemu said.

In the meantime, another of the hospital’s dire needs is a portable X-ray unit which will be secured through the 5K run/walk scheduled for Sunday, February 18.

“Sometimes the patients are not in a condition where we can move them to the X-ray department, so by getting this portable unit we will cut down the hospital stay and improve the quality of care,” Dr Vemu told Observer reporters and editors.

The hospital, which is strategically located between the communities of Negril and Whitehouse, and serves all parishes in the county of Cornwall, except Trelawny, has been the subject of several news reports focused on the overcrowding there.

On Monday, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Camille Lewin said the donation will significantly help to alleviate the situation which has continued unabated.

“It is not unique to our hospital to say that we experience overcrowding every day. So this morning our count was 253, which means that we have patients sitting in chairs, waiting for a bed,” she told the Monday Exchange.

The donation, Lewin said, could not have come at a more opportune time.

“To say we are elated to be beneficiaries of this year’s event is an understatement. We have patients on the ward waiting for surgery and that creates a back-up of the patients in the emergency room, because if you are on the ward six weeks waiting for surgery, then you know it’s going to be a domino effect spilling over into the emergency room. So that’s what we want to focus on just now,” she said.

“We have a challenge with space for staff, for storage, for patients; that’s one of our greatest needs right now, notwithstanding equipment is priority,” Lewin explained.

“This year we celebrate 60 years. We have a lot of needs and we try to educate the public in western Jamaica, so much more in Sav-la-Mar, of the need to be responsible,” she stated.

Last August, the hospital’s struggle made headlines with revelations that the number of patients abandoned there continued to climb.

On Monday, Lewin said the cases which had peaked at 25 then, now stand at 29.

“It goes up in twos; as soon as you get one out, two come in,” she said, noting that the hospital has been in dialogue with a neighbouring infirmary to take those individuals.

The Savanna-la-Mar General Hospital had its genesis in the early 1900s when indentured East Indian labourers first sought medical care at the infirmary of military barracks located in the town at the time.

In 1958, a fire destroyed the infirmary building. However, years later a public/private partnership led to the construction of the current structure, which was officially opened on July 24, 1964 by then Health Minister Dr Herbert Eldemire (now deceased).

Currently, the facility, which has more than doubled its bed complement to 200, is the only Type B hospital in western Jamaica.

It provides a comprehensive range of medical, surgical, diagnostic, rehabilitative, and therapeutic services, delivered to more then 200,000 people by a dedicated team of 410 medical, administrative, and support staff.

Over the years, the hospital has been transformed into a modern secondary health-care facility, having undergone significant upgrading. The most recent was undertaken in 2010 when laparoscopic surgery was introduced.

The hospital also has a refurbished Labour and Delivery Suite, and a Colonoscopy Unit, one of only two established in rural Jamaica.

The Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run is now in its 26th year. Since the start of this charity road race, more than $650 million has been donated to numerous beneficiaries with a focus on health, child-related and educational initiatives.

The event is the largest road race in the Caribbean and 100 per cent of all monies from the run supports the beneficiaries that are named each year.

Jamaica’s 400m hurdler Rushell Clayton, who took bronze in the event at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last August; Reggae Boyz captain and goalkeeper Andre Blake; and FYAH 105 DJ Orrett “Bambino” Hart are the event’s ambassadors this year.