Oracabessa clinic gets defibrillator
Doctor’s office to be built at the facility
Published:Tuesday | October 18, 2022 | 12:07 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
Member of Parliament for Western St Mary Robert Montague handed over a digital defibrillator to the Oracabessa Health Centre on Thursday after working with councillor for the division Sheldon Kidd and the St Mary Charities organisation to raise funds for its purchase.
Montague had previously handed over defibrillators to Port Maria and Annotto Bay hospitals and the Gayle Health cCentre and identified the facilities at Mason Hall and Carron Hall as next in line to benefit.
“I want to entreat the community, not only of Oracabessa, but the surrounding communities – Racecourse, Galina, Stewart Town, Boscobel, Airy Hill, Tank Lane, Coloraine – that we have to protect this piece of equipment because the life that it will save may just be yours,” Montague urged.
He said he would be seeking to secure more medical equipment for health facilities in Western St Mary.
“There are many hospitals in Jamaica and in the Caribbean that don’t have a piece of equipment like this, many hospitals, and the Oracabessa health centre, today, has this piece of equipment,” he said. “We gave one to the Port Maria H and one to the Annotto Bay Hospital, also the Gayle Health Centre. We’re trying to get more diagnostic equipment because I believe that First World medical response should be right here in St Mary.”
Montague also disclosed that he had secured funding to secure space to accommodate a doctor at the Oracabessa Health Centre. He said following his approach to the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and a visit by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and TEF personnel, funding was approved.
“Today, we got a letter that the project was approved. I think it’s $9 million or $11 million, and the parish council is to proceed to procure a contractor to build out a doctor’s office, examination office, and a bathroom for the Oracabessa Health Centre,” said Montague.
He added that a doctor was assigned to the health centre during the heights of COVID-19, but there was no space to facilitate him working from the centre.