MoBay's multimillion-dollar clinic now open

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Hope (Teaching) Health Clinic in Montego Bay, St James, which has been operating for over four decades, now has a new home at the newly constructed multimillion dollar facility on the grounds of the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, in the proximity of the Mt Alvernia High School and Cornwall College.

Formerly operating from a location in nearby Albion, it had its official opening on Wednesday. It is touted as a one-stop-shop for all medical needs and services, including dental, optical, and general medical. The state-of-the-art operating theatre is to be opened shortly.

"I think it is a great facility in Montego Bay, and I am extremely impressed," said Godfrey Dyer, chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), whose organisation donated $30 million towards the construction of the clinic.

"The contribution that TEF made to it, I am very satisfied that it was money well spent. Hope Clinic has been treating numerous patients, including hotel workers, at very low costs. So this means a lot for the medical services in Montego Bay, especially in these days when the Cornwall Regional Hospital is limping along."

According to Jeanne Robinson Foster, who chairs the board of the Hope (Teaching) Health Clinic, with a new and larger facility, she is expecting that the clinic will exceed the nearly 40,000 patients it normally sees annually.

Growth process

"We will continue to grow because our mainstay has been medical groups that come from abroad," said Robinson Foster. "A group is coming down in January to bring down equipment for optical, and in February, a paediatric dentist who wants to see 40 to 60 children a day will be here. So we will be able to do what we are doing on a much larger scale as we are here to serve the community and the working poor."

However, Robinson Foster pointed out that there was still more work to be done on the facility. She said that there was need for drainage, a car park, a food court, and a generator.

Against that background, Robinson Foster is calling on corporate Jamaica and those abroad to give further assistance, while at the same time thanking those who already donated, among them TEF and the Mt Alvernia Prep and High schools.