MONTEGO BAY, St James — Nine months after it was completed at a cost of about $60 million, the health centre in Adelphi, St James, is still not open. However, Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) Managing Director Omar Sweeney is optimistic that the facility will begin providing services to the public in June.

“We were preparing to open the centre, but there is some work that we have to do on the parking area, and we’ve been working in conjunction with the Ministry of Health to complete it,” he told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.

“We completed the building and some arrangements were in place to do some external works. The external works and the completion of the parking area and the driveway were to have been done under separate contracts and so that’s where the delay occurred,” he added.

He anticipates that these issues will be addressed soon and there will be no trouble making the June deadline.

The news has been welcomed by Councillor Mark McGann (Jamaica Labour Party, Somerton Division).

“I am very happy… the small one that is there is really under pressure and we need this boost for the community,” he said.

“Adelphi and its environs have been growing, we have housing projects projected for this area. We have an influx of new persons moving into this area. We have infrastructure works like the road from Salt Marsh being worked on, so we are expecting a lot of persons,” he continued.

The existing health centre, he said, serves about 13 communities even though there are others that provide similar services in the area.

The new building is located close to the facility it will replace. The project was undertaken through the Poverty Reduction Programme, which is funded by the European Union.

The Barrett Town and Flanker health centres in the parish have also benefited from funding.

Sweeney was unable to say what will become of the old building at Adelphi once the new health centre opens.

“The intention was that the ministry would make a decision on the use of that other building; that would fall within their remit,” he said.

“We had put this new building at a higher elevation because of some flooding issues that was happening at the lower elevation, and so I think they have to make some decisions in what they are going to use that building for,” he explained.