MONTEGO BAY, St James — Opposition spokesman on health and wellness Dr Alfred Dawes has expressed concern that inadequate staffing will hobble services at the under-renovation Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) and the nearby Western Children and Adolescent Hospital (WCAH) when the projects are completed.

“I am wondering if we are adequately addressing staffing. I don’t believe enough foresight was there in the beginning to say that we are going to be adding several hundred beds, paediatric speciality services,” Dr Dawes told journalists during a tour of both facilities on Monday.

The 220-bed WCAH is being built on the grounds of CRH. Indications are that it could employ more than 1,200 staff members. CRH will have 430 beds and will provide 35 types of medical services, eight more than it offered in the past. New additions will include a burn unit.

Dr Dawes rapped the Government for what he said was a failure to adequately prepare the staff needed to accompany the expected expansion in services.

“We knew that this hospital was going to be built for some time now. How has the capacity of paediatricians been increased, how has the capacity of paediatric nurses been increased, have we been training them?” he asked.

“I can tell you, the answer is ‘No’. The capacity to train nurses and paediatricians is pretty much the same as it was nine years ago when this hospital was pretty much signed off on. We are going to have a white elephant if we don’t have the staff to run the hospital,” he warned.

However, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton has insisted there is a plan in place and aspects of it are already being implemented.

“While staffing will always be a challenge, it envisions a phased approach to opening — starting with moving services from the CRH involving child and adolescent care,” Tufton told the Jamaica Observer when asked for a response to Dawes’ concerns.

“[We will be] adding additional services on a phased basis to address better coordination of activities, operations, staff recruitment and patient care. We have already started staff recruitment,” the health minister assured.

On January 22 and 23 this year, the health ministry hosted an expo and job fair at The University of the West Indies, Mona under the theme, ‘A Career in Health: Roadmap to Success’. It said it had 600 jobs on offer.

On Monday, clinical coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) Dr Delroy Fray shared Tufton’s view that staffing would not be the major challenge Dr Dawes anticipates it will be. He also dismissed Dawes’ suggestion that CRH may become a white elephant.

“We will be doing it on a phased basis where we will be fully occupied probably in about two years after we open; but it won’t be left empty,” he insisted.

Concerns about inadequate staffing were not the only issues raised by Dr Dawes on Monday. He repeated a call for Government to ensure that equipment purchased meet at least a minimum standard of quality and there is routine maintenance.

“Service packages will be bought with whatever equipment, but again, this needs to go further. There is a health facilities maintenance unit that used to be at the Ministry of Health and that has been gutted. That was responsible for the maintenance of machinery and equipment and the hospital plants and clinics across the island,” he asserted.

“We need to build that back and get maintenance in-house with capable bio-mechanical engineers who are going to be deployed across the island. We cannot just fix the pothole of what is Cornwall and the rest of the road to healthcare is left riddled with potholes that result in the loss of human life,” he said.

In response, Dr Fray said training will be provided for individuals who will operate and maintain the equipment.

Meanwhile, despite the concerns he raised during the tour, Dr Dawes told reporters he was “pleased with what we are going to end up with”.

“Both hospitals are going to be state-of-the art in terms of the layout and the services offered,” he said.