MONTEGO BAY, St James — For the last seven years, the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) auditorium has been home to several medical departments formerly housed in Cornwall Regional Hospital’s (CRH) main building. And while the organisation has happily lent the space, for the wider good, it is looking forward to reclaiming the space.

The auditorium has been where patients have gone to access outpatient clinics such as physiotherapy and orthopaedics. The conference centre was pressed into use after CRH’s main building was deemed inhabitable because of air quality issues in 2017.

What was planned as a temporary imposition has now dragged on for years as the scope of the delay-plagued CRH project was widened. For president of the West Jamaica Conference Pastor Glen Samuels, it has been a joy to be of assistance but he admits that it has been challenging.

“We’ve been working with them since 2017 and it’s been a partnership with pleasure and pain… in the sense that it is our joy to do whatever we can to assist — especially the people in western Jamaica, many of whom are persons who might not be able to get the treatment elsewhere,” Samuels told the Jamaica Observer.

“We are committed to that as the matter of the social well-being of our folk is a part of our heart,” he said, adding that he has deliberately made it a part of his duty to oversee the department of community services.

There is no denying, though, that the arrangement has sometimes hobbled the church.

“There are times when it’s challenging; for example, we had the world leader coming to us on April 12 and, in that context, we needed space,” Samuels explained.

“We pitched a huge tent; we had almost 2,000 seats inside and about 600 outside. When a lot of folks came [they could not be accommodated], they had to [go] back home. In moments like those, it becomes a challenge,” he conceded.

However, he made it clear that he and his team in the west will make the auditorium available for as long as necessary in this time of great need.

“We stand willing to help,” Samuels declared.

“One, it’s a part of our social, Christian consciousness and number two, it helps not only the working members of our church but sick members of the church,” he stated.

Samuels also pointed to some positives in terms of behavioural change in some people who use the hospital’s services housed in a place of worship.

“The amazing thing is that the same people who would come over the hospital and curse and carry on behave better on that side [where the church is located]; that is the feedback from the doctors,” related Samuels.

The arrangement has also provided an opportunity for the church to easily help those in need.

“Every now and then we provide hot meals and stuff for the patients using the facility, that is what church is all about. Real church takes place after you’ve left the building called church,” Samuels declared.

Last week, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton indicated that completion of CRH’s main admin building is in the final stages. Samuels is looking forward to the conference’s auditorium being returned to its original state, before it was transformed into a medical facility.

“Part of the pledge was that at the end… they would do the restoration because, as you would imagine, after all of that period with the kind of traffic and all of those issues [repairs would be needed],” he stated.

“They would have retrofitted it, and the commitment was that at the end of their sojourn, they will return it to what it was,” added Samuels.