Plans being reviewed for Spanish Town Hospital expansion
Published:Thursday | September 1, 2022 | 12:10 AM
The St Catherine Municipal Corporation has been reviewing the building plans for the redevelopment of the Spanish Town Hospital in an effort to reduce delays in the implementation of the Jamaica 60 project.
“What we are doing is to make sure that a team from the municipal corporation, architects, and all those designing the plan for the hospital are working in collaboration. So as soon as that is done, the go-ahead will be there for the plan and for the project to start,” said Spanish Town Mayor Norman Scott.
The new hospital building will be located to the northeast of the existing facility, which currently houses several structures that will require demolition.
Some of the existing hospital services that take place in these areas will need to be temporarily relocated to facilitate the construction.
Ground is set to be broken in the first quarter of 2023 and construction of the modern, six-storey structure, with an estimated area of 17,633 square metres, is expected to take two years.
At a St Catherine open house and exhibition for the rehabilitation of Jamaica’s public-health facilities on Wednesday, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said that the plans have been with the municipal corporation since June.
“But there are some minor adjustments to be made on the [sewerage system],” Tufton said.
Tufton stressed that the parish needs a robust health infrastructure.
“Not only do we have perhaps the highest level of pass-throughs – people driving on the highways between the capital and other parts of the country – but from a residential perspective, it represents the largest residential, and following soon behind that, commercial infrastructure development, certainly in the last decade or more,” the health minister said.
Tufton said that the specialised facility is important to meet the needs of the people who have invested and made a life in the parish.
The upgrade will see the facility moving from a Type B to a Type A regional hospital, serving as a final referral point for other public hospitals.
The St Jago Park, Greater Portmore, and Old Harbour health centres will also be rehabilitated under the health systems strengthening programme.
Scott said that the municipal corporation has given verbal notice to the people occupying sections of the premises where the Old Harbour Health Centre will be constructed.
He said that the facility is well needed as the town has been growing, and some 10,000 housing solutions are in the pipeline.
“We are looking forward to that Old Harbour clinic, and we want to make sure that it has the facilities to accommodate the kind of expansion that is taking place or will take place in the Old Harbour area,” he said.