Andrews: We’ve never been approached for registration

DECLARING IT has been “pained” by the Jodian Fearon situation, the embattled Andrews Memorial Hospital (AMH) is speaking out, saying it has never been approached for or rejected efforts at registration or certification since it began operating 76 years ago.

The private healthcare facility is not among the four hospitals on the 2020 gazetted list of registered institutions although a 2016 government document recognises 11 such facilities. The hospital also signed an agreement with the Government last month to serve as an overflow ward for non-COVID-19 patients from the Kingston Public Hospital.

Registration for private hospitals is required under the Nursing Homes Registration Act (NHRA) of 1934, but last week, the chairman of Andrews Memorial Hospital (AMH), Pastor Everett Brown, said the facility has never been assessed for anything except its cafeteria services, “which it has never failed”.

That assessment is done under the Public Health Act.

While health sector sources have suggested that some institutions have frowned upon being asked to register under the NHRA, Brown said his facility is not among them.

“Andrews Memorial Hospital never rejected certification under the Nursing Home Registration Act … We have never been approached for assessment by the MOH (Ministry of Health and Wellness) for registration or certification,” he said.

Brown added that since last Sunday’s exposé by this newspaper, the health ministry has reached out to the Hope Road, St Andrewbased hospital to start its regularisation process. He said that once the facility became aware that the onus was on the institution to apply, it immediately did so.

NOT AWARE OF REQUIREMENTS

“Before last week, we were not aware of the requirements under the act. (So) I signed the application form this (Thursday) morning,” said Brown, who heads the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica.

The administration of Hargreaves Memorial Hospital has also indicated that it has started the process to comply with the law.

“We were contacted by the health ministry since Sunday. They are in the process of formalising the registration,” said Chairman Calvin Lyn, insisting that even without the legal status, the Mandeville-based hospital has been complying “with all their requests and rules over the years. We’ve had inspections.”

Hargreaves is expected to be inspected within the next two weeks.

Up to press time, The Sunday Gleaner did not receive a response to questions posed to the ministry’s Standards and Regulation Division on a directive by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton for the immediate inspection of about 17 private hospitals.

Representatives of some private facilities also declined to speak on the record.