Rollington Town Health Centre adopted in memory of Dr Charles Denbow, wife
Published:Saturday | October 22, 2022 | 12:06 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
The Rollington Town Health Centre in Kingston on Friday became the 39th facility to be adopted under the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ Adopt-a-Clinic Programme.
The 43-year-old type-two health centre will benefit from an injection of more than $6 million over a five-year period, thanks to cousins, Dr Claude Denbow and Dr Frank Denbow, along with members of the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (GJFA) in honour of the late Guyanese doctor Charles Denbow and his Jamaican wife, Marjorie.
The centre serves an estimated 15,500 patients annually, providing services such as curative (diabetic and hypertension), dressing, maternal and child health, dental, mental health, laboratory and nutrition. Additional service includes cardiology (ECG) tests.
Dr Charles Denbow first arrived in Jamaica in 1965 as a pre-clinical student at The University of the West Indies (UWI). After completing his first year at the institution, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of London, where he obtained a degree in anatomy.
In 1975, he returned to Jamaica, where he lived for the rest of his life and dedicated himself to conducting health research and as a senior lecturer in medicine at The UWI from 1986.
In April 2008, the Government inducted Dr Charles Denbow into the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander in recognition of his commitment to the field of medicine.
He died in 2009 at age 63, four years after his wife’s passing in 2005.
Speaking at the official adoption ceremony, Dr Frank Denbow, president of the GJFA, which is based in Florida in the United States, said he was overjoyed at the opportunity to honour and memorialise his cousin, one of his “only heroes” in this fashion.
“I hope that over the next five years, in the first instance, Rollington Town health clinic will be a centre of excellence, befitting the memory of Professor Charles Denbow and Dr Marjorie Thompson Denbow,” he said.
The GJFA’s mandate is to provide financial and other material assistance to primary schools in less-affluent areas in Jamaica and Guyana and provide medical assistance to individuals who reside in impoverished areas in Jamaica and Guyana, among other things.
In his address, Wentworth Charles, chairman of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), noted that in the past three years, the Adopt-a-Clinic Programme has netted more than $166 million in commitments to improve health facilities.
To date, more than $76 million has been received.
The programme, which began in 2016, is a strategic initiative that seeks to proactively leverage the philanthropic support of the private sector and diaspora to play a more critical role in improving the primary healthcare system.*
There are 325 community health centres islandwide, 100 of which fit the criteria of being most needing of adoption.
So far, 26 adoptions (66 per cent) have been from members across the diaspora.
“This sort of partnership between Jamaica and the diaspora is critical to national development. Indeed, we are stronger together and this occasion highlights that,” Charles said.
He further pointed to the facility’s need for expansion and stated that the first thing on the agenda was to pave the grounds of the centre.
Phillip Paulwell, member of parliament for Kingston East and Port Royal, noted that this was the second health centre to be adopted within his constituency, the first being the Port Royal Health Centre, which was taken on in July by Fraser, Fontaine and Kong Insurance Brokers Limited.
He expressed hope that the Norman Gardens Health Centre, the third and last in his constituency, would also receive similar support.