Adventists still open to helping CRH amid COVID crisis
Published:Wednesday | September 2, 2020 | 12:41 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
More than three years after it first opened its doors to house some departments of the problem-plagued Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (WJC) remains committed to supporting the Type A facility amid the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview with The Gleaner on Tuesday, Pastor Glen Samuels, the president of the WJC, said the organisation recently held discussions with administrators at the CRH regarding the availability of space on the WJC’s grounds. He said he is awaiting follow-up talks to determine the next step forward.
“Our willingness to help as a community-oriented church is still there,” said Samuels.
“Our assistance depends on what support they [CRH representatives] are going to be asking for, because they still have the entirety of the newer section of our auditorium where they have a number of services, and they still have the skills-training building that we had given them as soon as it was finished.”
Efforts to contact CRH Chief Executive Officer Charmaine Williams-Beckford for comment on the discussions were unsuccessful.
The WJC’s willingness to help the CRH comes at a time when the St Andrew-based University Hospital of the West Indies and Princess Margaret Hospital in St Thomas have reached full capacity for housing COVID patients.
Last Friday, the Western Regional Health Authority announced that the region’s main public-health facilities were willing to accept some patients to ease that burden.
Prior to the COVID outbreak in Jamaica, the WJC offered its conference centre to house several displaced departments from the CRH following its partial closure because of noxious fumes in 2017. The hospital’s restoration was originally scheduled for completion in December 2020, but the work has been stalled because of the pandemic.
Jamaica recorded 2,459 infections and 21 deaths as at Monday, August 31.
In May, the CRH was outfitted with 15 beds for potential COVID-19 patients, including four with ventilators, and another 12 beds were later supplied to the hospital.