Year-end target for CRH building under construction, Tufton
Published:Saturday | January 7, 2023 | 12:57 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
MEDICAL STAFF at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) could resume caring for patients and dispensing medicine on a section of the Type A medical facility before the end of the 2023 calendar year. That’s according to Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who on Friday toured the facility’s rehabilitation works.
“This year, sometime, more the latter part than the earlier part for sure, we want to try to occupy part of the building and we are going to work towards that,” Tufton said of the area which has been shuttered since 2016.
“It is not going to be everything, but we want to try and occupy at least parts,” he said, while noting that the team handling the procurement of materials and designs are working tirelessly to ensure that there are no further delays with the work.
According to Tufton, engineering firm M&M Jamaica, the current contractor carrying out rehabilitation work, having previously signed a $1.6 billion contract with the Ministry of Health and Wellness in 2021 to undertake the project, must now speed up its work to facilitate the transition to a new contractor, who will put on the finishing touches.
“That means that what is happening now is they (contractors) will have to step up the pace, and there will be some transitioning over the next number of months to another contractor for the final phase,” Tufton explained.
In 2016, noxious fumes prompted the relocation of several hospital departments from the main building to facilitate rehabilitation at the facility. Several deadlines have been missed, some blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The current rehabilitation is estimated for completion by December 2024.
On completion, Tufton said the entire facility will be a world-class medical village in the Caribbean community and will not bear any images of the past.
“Our intention when we unveil is that you are not going to see any signs of what Cornwall used to be. You will see a brand new Cornwall Regional Hospital,” said Tufton.
“I am a lot more confident now, having had a lot of starts and stops,” he added.
Meanwhile, members of the Montego Bay business community welcomed the latest pronouncements by the minister that the Type A facility would be reoccupied by year’s end.
“We welcome any news to have Cornwall Regional resembling the Type A hospital that it should,” said Oral Heaven, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, “We have been pushing for that for sometime now, in fact, it was just yesterday (Thursday) in a meeting of the executive body of the Chamber that enquiries were made about the progress of the rehabilitation work on the facility,” he added.