New wave of hospital, health centre upgrades coming
‘Our efforts are also to yield the creation of an integrated information system for health, including an electronic health records system and the expansion of telehealth services that should make healthcare more accessible for Jamaicans and at a faster rate.’
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 marked a good day in public health in Jamaica, as we broke ground for the island’s first hospital for children and adolescents in western Jamaica, home to close to 500,000 or almost 20 per cent of our population.
The hospital is to provide outpatient, emergency, surgical, laboratory, and intensive care services, and has been made possible through the generosity of the Government and the people of the People’s Republic of China, who are providing US$43 million or J$5.7 billion in grant funding for the project.
The addition of the 220-bed, seven-floor facility forms part of a larger programme to upgrade and expand our public health infrastructure, to realise enhanced efficiency, given new and emergent demands, and towards the achievement of universal healthcare for Jamaicans.
Our current health profile has added urgency to getting this done. The noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) burden on the health sector, for example, is significant. Jamaica saw a 21.6 per cent increase in NCD-related deaths between 2010 and 2016 (from 10,344 to 12,577).
At the same time, one in three Jamaicans is living with high blood pressure, one in eight with diabetes, and one in two is overweight or obese. Beyond that, we had a cancer mortality rate of 118.2 per 100,000 in 2010, accounting for some 3,198 persons.
Given these realities, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is, over the next three to five years and in line with our 10-year strategic plan for health, to invest in improvements at six hospitals and 10 health centres, as we bolster primary and secondary healthcare.
In addition to Cornwall Regional Hospital, which is even now being restored to the tune of J$3.5 billion, Bustamante Hospital for Children, Spanish Town Hospital, St Ann’s Bay Hospital, Kingston Public Hospital, and May Pen Hospital are to see improvements, including the purchase of new equipment.
The Greater Portmore, Old Harbour, May Pen West, St Jago, Brown’s Town, Chapelton, Lionel Town, Mocho, St Jago Park, Ocho Rios, and St Ann’s Bay health centres are to benefit from the construction of waiting areas and medical records departments, pharmacy and laboratory facilities, as well as sanitary conveniences for staff and patients, and at a value of more than US$14 million.
INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEM
Our efforts are also to yield the creation of an integrated information system for health, including an electronic health records system and the expansion of telehealth services that should make healthcare more accessible for Jamaicans and at a faster rate.
This is courtesy of funding to the tune of US$7.5 million under an Inter-American Development Bank financing agreement valued at US$100 million. A total of US$50 million or J$6.2 billion of that sum, together with Government of Jamaica funding, is financing the upgrades that our primary and secondary care facilities are to see.
We have also planned for the creation of Centres of Excellence in nephrology and oncology at facilities, including St Joseph’s Hospital, on which work is progressing.
These efforts are complemented by the investment in making diagnostic services more readily available to Jamaicans through the recent launch of phase one of the Enhanced Healthcare Services project.
Phase one of that project has seen collaboration with a number of private laboratories together with The University Hospital of the West Indies to provide outsourcing services for diagnostic radiology and imaging. With protocols established for the referral of patients from the public health system to access the services, including CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound and histopathology, waiting times should be reduced.
Of course, these developments will not conclude overnight and the impact will be felt only in stages until work is finalised. But we will get there, and so I urge the cooperation and patience of Jamaicans as we make the journey.