Lucea Infirmary gets facelift to take increasing social cases
LUCEA, Hanover — An increase in social cases at the Noel Holmes Hospital in the parish has led to the Hanover Municipal Corporation renovating an old ward at the Lucea Infirmary to accommodate the influx.
These include the registered poor, and individuals abandoned by relatives.
Work was done on the infirmary as this year’s Labour Day parish project.
“We want to have it rehabilitated to take those cases from the hospital so that the general citizenry will have those spaces in the hospital that are well-needed for ill persons,” said acting mayor of Lucea, Andria Dehaney Grant.
“We have approximately 14 persons at the hospital right now; that number has increased over the last year or so. It is our responsibility as a corporation, through the Poor Relief Department, to take care of those cases when they are actually in the hospital. We are making provisions to accommodate those persons at the infirmary but presently we don’t have the space here,” said Dehaney Grant in explaining the need for additional space at the facility.
Despite the proactive move, the corporation will have to await permission to allow the transfer of these patients.
“We are basically not able to take anybody in the infirmary because of the ban since COVID, which has not been lifted. But it is our aim to rehabilitate this area that as soon as we get to go ahead we can have the persons coming over here to the infirmary,” the acting mayor said.
In March 2020, the Government restricted access to infirmaries and golden age homes as part of measure to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus inside these institutions.
The corporation has not forgotten its duty to care for these individuals.
“As a municipal corporation we have a responsibility to ensure that, especially the most vulnerable in our parish, are well taken care of. It is our aim to complete this building so that we can better be able to take care of these people in our parish,” explained Dehaney Grant.
Among those who participated in the day’s activities were members of the Hanover Municipal Corporation, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Defence Force, Miss Jamiaca Festival Queen competitors, along with representatives from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, infirmary workers, and the general public.
“Presently, because we’re just basically doing the clean-up exercises today, we just provided the tools that we needed like the power washing machine or whatever equipment that we needed to remove the things,” stated Dehaney Grant.