CRH restoration work could resume before Christmas, says Tufton
HEALTH MINISTER Dr Christopher Tufton on Thursday announced that the multi-billion dollar rehabilitation works on the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), i n Montego Bay, St James, could begin before the upcoming Christmas season and should be moving full speed ahead come January 2022.
Tufton made the announcement at a contract-signing ceremony, which saw the Ministry of Health and Wellness and engineering firm M&M Jamaica signing off on a $1.6-billion contract, which will include stripping down of the facility.
“I believe that there is a very clear path and clear definition of work that is in place and that the contractor and team are fully aware of, and we expect that that will begin soon, though not tomorrow or next week. We are running into Christmas, but if it is even the scaffolding and the mesh around the building, we have to try and do something before Christmas because I want January morning to be serious business, if not before,” said Tufton.
“Today I am hoping, given those lessons we have learned, that we now have a clearer path to the rehabilitation and completion of the CRH. We had to change course several times, but I am hoping that this particular course will be the course that takes us to completion and will end the season of discontent, which clearly still lingers,” added Tufton
The latest update comes more than five years after the Mt Salem-based, Type-A hospital had to relocate several of its facilities from its main building in late 2016 due to noxious fumes affecting operations on its first three floors. Since then, there have been at least two projected timelines for the restoration work’s completion, including dates in November 2019 and the first quarter of 2022.
Tufton also announced Cabinet’s approval of an application for the emergency procurement of funds to speed up the restoration work at the hospital, even as he acknowledged that much time has been spent in making such arrangements since work first began in 2017.
“We are announcing Cabinet’s approval to engage in emergency procurement arrangements for the final completion of this aspect of the project. We now have the go-ahead to approach the next phase, and the intention is to recognise the timelines that are involved in order to try and shrink that overall timeline so that we can get to a date of completion within a much shorter period,” explain Tufton.
“Of the 60 months of CRH’s project, there have been about 24 months spent on procurement. That tells a tale that requires a different discussion and I think it is clearly obvious that we really neglected our ultimate constituents, the people, because we, unfortunately, are engaged in a process that has just dragged on for a very long time,” added Tufton..
Meanwhile, Janet Silvera, the president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and I ndustr y, applauded Tufton’s proactive movement toward speedily finishing the CRH’s restoration for which her organisation has frequently advocated.
“We are excited about the prospects in relation to the CRH’s future. We feel that, going forward, the project time that was estimated before will probably be cut by about 50 per cent,” said Silvera. “As a chamber that has called time and time again for something concrete to happen to the CRH, we feel that the minister has made the right move, and we want to thank him and Cabinet for listening to us.”