The National Chest Hospital’s desire to have its own testing laboratory is expected to become a reality by year end with the donation to come from the proceeds of today’s Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run.

The anticipated funds will also go towards the procurement of a machine that will help with improving the hospital’s capacity to do cardiothoracic surgeries more efficiently by reducing the need for open chest procedures.

The donation will be a share of the event’s targeted $100 million that will also benefit Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital and Danny Williams School for the Deaf.

National Chest Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dwayne Francis said that with a laboratory department in place, the institution will no longer have to rely on the National Public Health Laboratory and the Kingston Public Hospital laboratory to get test results.

“This would be an additional benefit to the health service that persons can now find another avenue where they can get their results done,” Francis told the Jamaica Observer.

He said the wait for results sometimes causes a bed to be blocked for a longer period than it should when a patient could be out of the hospital in five days or within two weeks, depending on the condition.

“[This] sometimes adds a little challenge for the doctors because the doctors would want to be able to diagnose quickly, follow-up quickly, and be able to make a decision as to whether or not the patient can go or whether or not there is more intervention to be done,” he said.

The hospital’s Senior Medical Officer Dr Terry Baker also stressed that having its own lab is vital because of the nature of the hospital “and things turn around just like that in terms of somebody’s lung health or heart health”.

“We need to be able to address it right away many times. So the delay that we have in getting results sometimes can mean the matter between a patient getting one type of treatment versus the next and a positive or negative outcome,” she said.

“We really hope that out of all of this we can better equip our hospital to deal with the cases that we have here and to really help other institutions as we are one of [the health institutions in] the Liguanea region and we share facilities. So a laboratory at the National Chest Hospital would be a laboratory really for the Liguanea region and for other public health institutions,” she said.

Turning to the other area in which the hospital seeks to improve its service, Dr Baker said the acquisition of a video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) machine will “minimise open chest surgeries as much as we can”, and, therefore, reduce the risk of complications and lessen recovery times and allow the hospital to carry out more of these surgeries which it offers free of cost.

VATS is a minimally invasive surgical technique used to diagnose and treat problems in the chest.

“That machine will allow for persons to do surgeries and be able to go home, probably within seven days, rather than sit in the hospital for weeks, and the complications that come behind that after open chest surgery also are reduced. So we are looking forward to improving that service within the South East Regional Health Authority,” she said.

Dr Baker went on to explain that surgical procedures, as it pertains to the chest, would usually require surgeons having to break the breast plate, pull aside ribs or open up ribs to get to see the lungs, but having this VATS system allows them to avoid doing that by making smaller incisions and accessing various areas in the lung or within the chest.

“That being said, that does not mean that we will never ever need to do open chest surgery again, but those would be for specific cases. And a number of the cases that we are already doing this for increases drug usage; increases hospital times; increases risk of complications, such as bleeding, infection, hospitalisation, and all that go with having that open chest surgery, [which] will be significantly reduced doing it endoscopically,” she said.

She went on to thank Sagicor for selecting National Chest Hospital as one of the beneficiaries this year, while the CEO thanked the company for its support for the health sector over the years.

“Thanks to Sagicor not only for National Chest as a beneficiary but also for the impact that Sagicor has had over the years on the health service. I have benefited in other capacities as a CEO and we have seen where neonatal units have improved, we have seen where hospital A&Es have improved, and we are the better for it because Sagicor is not only giving back to the institutions but also touching the hands of the Jamaican people, so when they come for service, they get the best service possible that we can provide in the hospitals with equipment that we have,” he said.

This year’s event is dubbed ‘Sagicor Sigma Honour Run’ in celebration of the life of the late R Danny Williams, founder of Life of Jamaica, which became Sagicor Jamaica. He was also chairman of Sagicor Foundation, which sponsors the Sigma Run.

Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run is a unique road-running event designed to inspire fun, fitness, and camaraderie among Jamaicans. It is known to be the largest road race in the Caribbean, and 100 per cent of all monies raised go to support the beneficiaries that are named each year.