JACDEN Group of Companies last Friday launched its new medical facility with a bold promise from Chairman Dennis Gordon: “If a patient comes here and within 15 minutes they are not attended to by a medical person, they will get the treatment free of cost.”

Gordon also announced that he recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami to do kidney transplants for patients, while adding Jamaica’s first-ever soma lab designed to analyse diseases and cells in the body.

“We are doing the things because we have been bold and we are doing the things that will change lives. We want to save lives, we want to give people second chances,” Gordon said, adding that the facility will also be treating diabetic ulcers while becoming “pioneers of eradicating amputation”.

“What I have done is to look at where the poor suffers most and to find a way to bring them on path with those who can afford to travel overseas, and I just want to say this to demonstrate our dedication to the poor: Anyone who comes here, once you are properly registered, you will not be turned away because of money,” he said.

JACDEN Group of Companies, which started in 2008, offers a wide variety of services ranging from janitorial to project management and trading services alongside providing pharmaceutical and medical supplies for hospitals across Jamaica and the Caribbean.

The new facility, JACDEN Pharma and Medical Services, will prioritise affordable and efficient health-care service, especially for Jamaica’s low-income earners.

According to Dr Kurdell Espinosa Campbell, chief medical officer for JACDEN Pharma and Medical Services, some of the key medical services that will be provided range from dialysis treatment to laparoscopy surgery. The entity will also partner with other medical facilities to get the best outcome for all patients.

“Key services that will be included in this initial phased opening are the 12-bed dialysis unit that is located next door. We have the chemotherapy oncology suit, and this [area] will be the urgent care centre when it is fully up and running,” she said.

“In the next phase we will be opening the ophthalmology suite where glaucoma surgery, retinopathies, and cataracts that often lead to blindness in our population will be addressed as a key initiative, while a fully equipped first-class operative theatre will also be opened that will focus on laparoscopic surgeries so that we create an efficient system for surgical procedures here at JACDEN,” Dr Espinosa Campbell told guests at the soft launch of the medical facility at JACDEN Enterprises on Lyndhurst Road in St Andrew.

She said the initiative stems from a partnership with Cuba which will see 12 Cuban health-care professionals working at the medical facility to assist in providing high-quality patient care.

“I am honoured to collaborate with the highly skilled medical doctors and nurses from the Republic of Cuba. Together we will build a platform to deliver new approaches to health-care delivery here at JACDEN Pharma and Medical Services. It is imperative that we recognise the current global health crisis that is not unique to Jamaica and the Caribbean. We must adopt an innovative approach to educate our community about lifestyle changes and make recommendations that will benefit the next generation of patients and physicians alike,” added Dr Campbell Espinosa.

Gordon pointed out that he started working on establishing the medical facility in 2021 because he had always been driven by a desire to provide affordable care for low-income Jamaicans.

“When I started the journey as a diabetic and I went to my doctor for a prescription and he wrote the prescription and it was $40,000, I said to him that I can afford to pay the $40,000, but what about those who can’t afford it, what will they do? And so I had an epiphany driving home, and I stopped in the middle of the road and I said, ‘Dennis, this is your calling, step up to the rescue of your people who are at the lower strata of economy and need the care and cannot afford it,’” Gordon shared.

He admitted that he was not fully sure about some of the things he needed to do when he started constructing the facility and credited the Cuban delegation for their assistance in building the medical facility in the “best possible way”.

“I just knew that I wanted to build a medical facility, and so I got a draughtsman who did the initial drawing and we started to construct. We were lost, so we invited a delegation from Cuba to come and to guide us and they came and went through the drawings and they made suggestions for adjustments.

”We knocked down probably half of the building to get it right, but I was convinced that I am going to do it the right way, and today I am celebrating that it has been done the right way,” said Gordon.

He told the launch that going forward more construction will be done to add more facilities and further diversify the services.

“In another few weeks that old building that started this will be knocked down, and we are going to go two storeys up on the other building because we are putting in a pathology lab and we are also putting in MRIs and CT scans, so once you come to JACDEN you will have it all,” he announced.

Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica Fermin Quiñones Sánchez said his country’s contribution to the facility is another indication of the ongoing partnership that has united Jamaica and Cuba over the years.

He said while Cubans will be working to provide high-quality medical care at JACDEN, they will also have an important part to play in improving the human resource by further educating young and aspiring health-care professionals in Jamaica.

“I have no doubt that this will be a reference centre in Jamaica and the Caribbean for the treatment of different non-communicable diseases that today affect the health of the Jamaican people,” said the ambassador.