New ward for COVID-19 patients under construction at Falmouth Hospital

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) is presently overseeing the construction of an additional ward now being built at the Falmouth Public Hospital in Trelawny.

Construction of the facility comes even as the Falmouth Hospital and the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover have exceeded their respective capacities for COVID-19 patients.

Errol Greene, the WRHA’s regional director, told The Gleaner yesterday that the construction project, which will create 36 extra bed-spaces at the Type C hospital, is expected to be finished by the end of this month.

“We are working on it 24 hours a day and that project will support not just Falmouth, but it will also support the region to take whatever overflow of COVID-19 cases we would have within the region,” said Greene.

FACILITIES IN PLACE

Concerning the Noel Holmes Hospital, Greene said that accommodations are in place to bolster the Lucea-based Type C facility.

“We have facilities at the Noel Holmes Hospital. It might not be much, because Noel Holmes is a small hospital, and it has maybe 40 beds at the most, so you would not expect to find a capacity of 30 or 40 isolation beds there at Noel Holmes, but we have things in place to accommodate Noel Holmes,” said Greene.

Last July, the Noel Holmes Hospital received six nebuliser machines, valued at J$110,000, to help treat patients with respiratory problems, bringing the hospital’s total number of nebuliser machines to 12. The equipment was provided to help manage COVID-19 cases that enter the hospital.

To date, Trelawny has recorded 383 COVID-19 cases and Hanover 320 out of Jamaica’s current total of 13,411 cases. Those parishes have the lowest COVID-19 numbers within the WRHA’s jurisdiction, behind St James’ 1,416 and Westmoreland’s 720.