Port Maria Hospital gets new elevator
HUNDREDS OF persons are now benefiting from a two-stop elevator provided at the Port Maria Hospital in St Mary, at a cost of $20 million.
Financed by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund, the new elevator is improving the wellness journey of patients and service delivery of staff. Regional director at the North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA), Fabia Lamm, said the previous elevator was between 25 and 30 years old.
The hospital noted downtime of 80 per cent over the last two years and an increase in the number of patients receiving care at the facility. Patients and heavy equipment had to be carried by staff up the stairs to facilitate provision of service, which was not ideal.
“The previous elevator had done its time. We were repairing it frequently, but it was basically becoming irreparable and obsolete. In looking at that, we started a procurement process in 2020 to replace it with a more modern two-stop elevator that would satisfy the need at the hospital, which has two floors,” Lamm.
Port Maria Hospital is a 60-bed Type C public general hospital that offers a range of health services, including accident and emergency (A&E), general medicine, paediatrics, maternity, radiology, laboratory, dietary and day services. Th e hospital operates with a staff complement of 170 persons and is located centrally in the parish.
With physical lifting proving strenuous to staff at the facility and impeding the ability to provide services in an efficient manner, it was critical for NERHA to work towards getting an elevator.
Lamm said scoping work was carried out to determine the needs of the hospital.
“What we needed was an elevator from the ground level, which would be the A&E Department, to the second floor, which has the wards. We scoped the design to facilitate an elevator that was big enough to hold not just staff moving from one floor to the other, but large enough as well to transport a patient in a stretcher or a wheelchair,” she said.
The scope of work revealed the need for a two-stop elevator just shy of $20 million in value.
“We went through the procurement process and based on bidding, the successful bidder’s cost came out at $19.97 million. That contractor was Jamaica Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Limited. Having reached that far in the procurement process, the next step was to look at funding this contract,” she said.
With a relationship with CHASE already in place, NERHA approached the fund with a proposal. Previously, the fund facilitated access to a new standby elevator at the Port Maria Hospital as well as a brand new generator, which now supplies the entire hospital.
A HIGE RELIEF
“We outlined the difficulty we were having, the need to replace the elevator and our desire to get the necessary funding as a grant to facilitate the replacement of the elevator. As usual, they were not hesitant and we provided them with the information. They conducted their evaluation and responded to us approving the $20 million to facilitate. We signed that contract with Jamaica Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in April of 2021 and the actual work commenced on May 20, 2021,” Lamm noted. Though the project was scheduled to take four months, the team encountered delays related to the supply chain and movement from the ports as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lamm noted that the commissioning of the elevator helped to relieve staff from the rigours of carrying patients manually from the first to the second floor.
“Our ability to replace the elevator has alleviated numerous industrial relations issues. Can you just imagine staff during the period when the old elevator was no longer working? The outcome of that was not all the patients could be moved. What we had was an overcrowded A&E Department, because it meant that for the patients who could not be moved physically, without the use of an elevator, they had to be cared for in the A&E department,” Lamm explained.
The Regional Director said that staff members have been much happier since the installation of the elevator.
“We’ve had several interventions with the staff just to crave their understanding and to encourage them to continue doing what they were doing in physically lifting patients. During that time, we did some refresher courses in proper lifting techniques and just had to have that constant dialogue with them that the end or the solution was near. They saw that we really were working assiduously to put in the solution,” she said.
Lamm expressed her gratitude to the CHASE Fund for stepping in and funding a critical project for the hospital.
“I really want to thank them. They’ve always been there for us at NERHA and we look forward to the continued partnership that we will have with them as we continue to improve healthcare delivery in the northeast region. The elevator was installed and we are now back to delivering services, alleviating some of the stress from the staff and having a fully functional two-stop elevator at the Port Maria Hospital,” she said.