MONTEGO BAY, St James — There is the possibility of yet another delay in completing the massive overhaul being done at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay. Work was expected to be completed on the main building by April, part of a phased completion, but that deadline appears to be slipping.

“We are all desirous of meeting the timeline but the reality is sometimes there are hurdles you have to get over. We had an underground storage tank that used to house bunker fuel [that was] used to run the boiler to generate steam before it was decommissioned,” Consultant Project Manager Vivian Gordon explained Tuesday.

He was speaking with the media during a Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCC&I) tour of the delay-plagued State-run medical facility.

“We ended up having to remove that tank because of the new design and that took several days. We have to assess all of those things. But contractually, as I said, the work is supposed to end in April and we’re still targeting that date. But I have to be mindful when communicating data regarding some of the hurdles that we have faced as the project has advanced,” he added, apparently cautious because of the project’s history of missed deadlines.

When contacted by the Jamaica Observer for a response, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said the team is working to make the last deadline he gave.

“Yes, [we are] pushing for the April date. They have doubled up the team so [I’m] hoping they will catch up some time,” he said.

Tufton and the wider Andrew-Holness-led Administration have been under severe pressure to get the CRH project across the finish line. In an election year, the delays and ballooning price tag have been fodder for the Opposition People’s National Party.

Air quality issues were detected at the hospital in 2017. After work began to fix that problem, an assessment determined that there was a mould issue and significantly more work was needed. Work was also impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As Tufton has noted in the past, the project morphed into what was essentially the construction of a new facility with state-of-the-art equipment and additional departments. As a result, the price tag ballooned from $2 billion to $23.5 billion. While some services were still offered at CRH as work was being done, the project has caused a significant degree of inconvenience for patients and staff.

During Tuesday’s tour, members of the western city’s business community appeared to take in stride the news that there could be another delay.

“The project manager has promised us April 26 with maybe a little grace period of five months added to that,” the chamber’s First Vice-President Paulette Neil told reporters following the tour.

“As the chamber, we are certainly holding him and the minister accountable to that date,” she added.

The general reaction from the group was satisfaction with the progress being made at CRH.

“For what we saw today, we’re happy for what we are seeing. We can see that there is always more that is being done,” said MBCC&I director and chairman of the parish project committee Dwayne Bennett.

“We were able to tour the new admin section and that, can be said, is the nucleus of what is to come and for that, we are happy,” he added.

The consultant provided a synopsis of some of the work left to be done.

“At this point in time we are carrying out all the medical and non-medical build out. We would have seen today on all the floors where the partition is going for all the spaces from the first floor straight up to the eighth floor. We are making preparations to start the build-out of the spaces on the ninth and 10th floors,” Gordon disclosed.

During the tour, members of the MBCC&I were updated on work being done on electrical and plumbing services, data connections and to roll-out installation of medical gas. There is also work being done to install lead sheeting for the radiology area, along with the installation of new windows and doors.

According to Gordon, as was done with the administration department, there will be early handovers with a few other departments.

“The contractor is working on the advance handover areas specifically right now: the buildout of medical records, the server room, dietary and general stores which are the early section areas we had agreed they would hand over to the client early,” he explained.

“They are also working on the buildout of the space for Accident & Emergency; a lot of that is new structural work that has been done and that is very advanced as well,” the consultant continued.

Regional director for the Western Regional Health Authority St Andrade Sinclair is optimistic that the phased reopening of the facility will go as planned.

“We have the IT section, we have the medical records section, the stores section and finally will be the Accident & Emergency room which will be the latter part of this year, hopefully before 2026 starts,” he said.