Resolute Greene takes aim at fixing CRH

WESTERN BUREAU:

Despite being on the job for a mere one month, Errol Greene, the new regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), already has been making significant steps in his quest to mastermind the restoration of the problem-plagued Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.

Last month, Greene replaced Dr Ken-Garfield Douglas, who was sacked as a result of concerns about the competency of the WRHA's board in the handling of the noxious fumes situation, which has caused major dislocation at the 400-bed Type A hospital.

"CRH is my greatest priority at this time," said Greene. "We are carrying out the services, and we have some challenges because we are now down to 230 beds. We are still trying to create more spaces, but the challenge is the logistics of carrying out the services with minimal disruptions."

The WRHA boss said that among the challenges he must tackle is the cost of outsourcing several critical CRH services to other facilities. The outsourced services include the hospital's renal unit, where patients and staff complained of being affected by noxious fumes.

"We have outsourced as best we can, and that can be costly. For example, for our renal unit, we had to retrofit that space, and it cost us a tidy sum to get the services done outside while we improved the space," Greene explained.

"We are also looking at working on the Falmouth Public Hospital, which is taking a big part of the load off CRH," continued Greene. "They were not prepared to do so as it was an 86-bed hospital, and they had two operating theatres that were not working. But we have refurbished them and put them back into service, and we have done a lot of work in the accident and emergency area," he reported.

Last month, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton disclosed that the Government was spending more than $500 million to fix the problems at the CRH, and projected that the entire facility should be reopened by the end of this year.