MONTEGO BAY, St James — Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon said plans are nearing completion for the development of a facility to accommodate social cases that have been placing significant pressure on the Cornwall Regional Hospital at Mount Salem.

“We are now awaiting the endorsement from the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to ensure that we can construct the additional section at the infirmary to house more than 50 cases from the Cornwall Regional Hospital,” Vernon told reporters following the regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation on Thursday.

“We are very close to closing that deal and we will provide more updates in short order,” he added.

Social cases refer to patients who have been medically discharged but remain at the hospital after being abandoned by relatives or because they have nowhere else to go. They use much-needed bed space, creating major challenges for the facility.

Discussions have been ongoing between the St James Municipal Corporation and the Ministry of Health and Wellness for infrastructure work that would create space at the infirmary to accommodate these individuals.

The mayor’s latest update suggests that substantial progress has been made in finalising a memorandum of understanding with the Health Ministry.

“We have met with the relevant persons and we are working to close it out,” Vernon told the meeting.

“It’s like a joint venture and we’re now waiting on the Ministry of Local Government’s endorsement. We’ve sent it to them, and they are supposed to update us on that,” he told the Jamaica Observer after the meeting.

Under the proposed arrangement, the municipal corporation would provide the land for the expansion, while the Ministry of Health and Wellness would undertake the construction and initially fund the operation of the new facility.

“They will fund the operation from there until we have a proper financial structure in place for the continuous funding of that extended part of the infirmary,” said Vernon.

The mayor said that while the corporation is committed to helping through the Poor Relief system, the existing infirmary lacks the capacity to accommodate all the social cases currently at the hospital.

“The reality is that we do not have the bandwidth to facilitate all the social cases out there. If we did, then we would go around and recruit all of them, get them into the infirmary, house them, take care of them, and so forth. But we can’t, because we don’t have the funding to do so,” he said.

“As it is, infirmaries can cost up to $150 million per year to operate just one, and that is what we have now,” the mayor added.

Vernon noted that the St James Infirmary operates on an annual budget of approximately $100 million and is considered a relatively small facility, meaning that any expansion would require resources beyond what the corporation can currently provide.

“We have to be very mindful of our ability to house these residents, because you’re not just taking persons off the street, you have to care for them, just as you would care for anybody else at the highest level,” he explained.

While expressing the corporation’s willingness to accommodate additional social cases, Vernon also appealed to families to take greater responsibility for their relatives.

“I’m urging family members, children, relatives, to see how best they can look out for their loved ones,” he urged.

“I’m not sure if they’re loved ones, because if they were loved ones, they wouldn’t be there, but I’m urging them to take care of their family members, take care of their relatives, and we should have less strain on the system,” said the mayor.