CRH restoration bill doubles to $10b

The Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) restoration bill continues to balloon, with latest government estimates putting the price tag at $10.5 billion, doubling the initial cost for completion.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dunstan Bryan, has said that the increase is to facilitate Phase III of the redevelopment project, which is expected to cover the rehabilitation of floors one to 10 of the Montego Bay-based facility and the procurement of furniture, information technology supplies, and medical equipment.

But Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Morais Guy is raising questions about the level of oversight being given to the project amid the significant increase in the allocation to complete the problem-plagued facility in the western end of the island.

Work began on the hospital in 2019 and was to be completed next month. However, a further extension has delayed the completion date by two years to March 2025.

The initial total cost, as outlined in the estimates of expenditure, was set down as $5,068,014,000 but has now been revised to $10,518,204,000. Some $2 billion is to be spent on the project in the upcoming financial year.

“We’re building a hospital,” Bryan told The Gleaner on Monday when asked about the increase.

“We gutted the entire hospital, so we have to rebuild it. Five billion is not a lot,” he added.

The permanent secretary said that the cost for Part One of the two-fold project included the removal of facilities from the hospital, renovating and rehabilitating Falmouth Hospital for additional capacity, relocating the hospital’s lab, and renovating the nursing quarters to make it into a ward.

Part Two, Phase I covered roof repair; Phase II (A) demolition and structural repairs to floors seven to nine; and Phase II (B) covered the demolition and structural repairs to the basement and floors one to six, rehabilitation of water tanks, and the construction of roof for atria.

Phase I and Phase II (A) have been completed, while Phase II (B) is 82 per cent complete. It is slated for completion in the coming fiscal year.

“We now can go in back and rehabilitate the building, meaning putting back all of the drywall, partitions, the electrical, plumbing, air-conditioning ducts, putting back the equipment and then painting and applying finishing. That is what we’re going to be doing in Phase III,” the permanent secretary said.

However, Guy, who two years ago pointed out that the renovation could cost approximately $12 billion, asserted that Byran’s argument does not hold water. He said that the cost of Phase III would have already been factored into the initial $5-billion estimate.

At the time, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton dismissed Guy’s cost projections.

“ … That is not the figure I have been working with or that I have been informed of,” he said in January 2021. “It is far in excess of what my information is, but I am happy to speak to him and hear exactly how he came by that calculation.”

On a second tour of the facility in May 2022, Guy concluded that the cost would amount to $10 billion.

He noted then that the estimates of expenditure had indicated that the renovation of the hospital would cost approximately $5.8 billion, although the Budget only spoke to the 2022-2023 financial year.

He said that if, as the country was told, it would take an additional two and a half years before completion, additional costs would inevitably be incurred.

‘SIGNIFICANT’ OVERRUN

On Monday, he noted that there is a “significant” cost overrun with the project and argued that the Government failed to budget properly for it.

“One appreciates that when you pull a whole structure, you would see additional things. That may be [so], but to have a significant cost overrun of about 110 per cent, … I don’t think quite honestly that $10 billion will be the final amount.

“The question arises now: What sort of oversight is in place or supervision? Are we getting value for money? Is the country spending more than ought to be spent?” said Guy, who added that the cost overrun is “cause for concern”.

Project Manager Vivian Gordon, who assumed the position in 2021, told The Gleaner that he could not comment without permission from the health ministry.

Dr Jeffrey East, former chairman of the oversight committee for the renovation, told The Gleaner on Tuesday that the increase in estimates is likely a result of new challenges that were discovered at different stages of the project.

East said that he stepped down as chairman two weeks ago because the terms of reference of the project were not made clear to him at the time of his appointment.

However, he said that he remains a member of the committee.

He said that aside from supply chain issues brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, “a lot of the problems” that have come up at the hospital manifested themselves over time but have not been communicated to the public.

“What went on initially were really misguided attempts to plug holes. Nobody’s fault. It’s just that they didn’t understand the extent of the problem. I think they finally came to grips with most of the problem probably about two years ago, and since then, they have put in a series of phases that have been well thought out,” East said.

He pointed to a Jamaican-led quality control organisation from the US that has been brought in to monitor the work.

“They’ve hit the nail on the head now,” said East.

“It was a widespread fungal infestation. What led to the fungal infestation was leaking from the roof, which saturated the building,” he said, speaking to the genesis of the problem.

Operations at the CRH were affected when staffers reported unease from noxious fumes in September 2016, resulting in the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department being vacated. A few months later, in February 2017, the fumes affected operations on the building’s first three floors, resulting in several services being relocated.

The fumes were subsequently found to have been caused by fibreglass particles emanating from the building’s 20-year-old ventilation system, which had just been put back in operation at that time.

Since then, other infrastructural issues have emerged.

East added that in one instance, relatively recently, it was discovered that the roof of the hospital’s clinic began leaking.

Attempts to fix the issue revealed over 10 inches of patch work, East said, which dated back some 25 years.

“So there is a certain amount of unforeseen expenditure which is going to happen,” he said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com