Gleaner Editors' Forum | Crisis at CRH leads to upgrade of other hospitals

Recent happenings at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) have been dubbed a national crisis, but some health officials are happy that this has resulted in an increase in the utilisation and improvement of other health facilities in western Jamaica.

Clinical director at the CRH, Dr Delroy Fray, told editors and reporters during a Gleaner Editors' Forum on Thursday that the current arrangement could be considered a template for the integration of primary healthcare.

"That's something that people have been talking about over the years and this crisis has forced us to integrate primary health care with our other hospitals around, with our other staff around, and it might very well turn out to be a template for the country," he said.

A number of the hospital's services were transferred to the Falmouth Hospital in Trelawny and other locations since air- quality concerns at the CRH were brought to the public's attention.

"Cornwall Regional is a type A hospital that provides specialist service to support the other hospitals in the region and outside the region, because we were running an ICU that supports outside the region, so this is a vital institution as it concerns patient care," said Dr Fray.

Not equipped

"Falmouth Hospital wasn't equipped for that, because Falmouth is a type C which wouldn't be equipped for that. So there were some buildings there that had to undergo refurbishing and we used that to house some of our surgical patients; and another area was used to accommodate some female surgical patients as well," he explained.

Acting regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority, Errol Greene, said the changes have seen the patients, members of the community, civic groups, and staff working together to make the transition possible.

"The good thing, again, coming out of all of this is that Falmouth has gotten a lot of attention. It was a Godsend for Falmouth," he said.