J$8 million target to rehabilitate Noel Holmes’ courtyard

WESTERN BUREAU:

A planning committee led by Lucea’s Deputy Mayor Andria Dehaney-Grant has launched an ambitious campaign to raise J$8 million to rehabilitate the courtyard of the Noel Holmes Hospital, the premier health facility in Hanover.

In an interview with The Gleaner, Dehaney-Grant said some donor organisations and companies have been identified and some have already been approached to solicit their support for the project.

The situation came to the fore in February when Lucea’s Mayor Sheridan Samuels told the monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) that personnel from that hospital had approached the corporation, seeking assistance to rehabilitate the courtyard.

“Senior members of the Noel Holmes Hospital staff have met with us. We had some discussions, they have some concerns and have outlined to us that the hospital’s courtyard is in a terrible state, and they would like us to partner with them to repair it,” Samuels said at the time.

The HMC’s local board of health, under which both the Noel Holmes Hospital and the Hanover Health Department fall, was integral to the planning of the project and was behind the decision to create the planning committee. The committee is made up of a wide cross section of personnel from the parish.

In their pitch to get the project accepted, hospital personnel pointed out that in case of an emergency at the hospital, the courtyard is currently not conducive to a fast, safe, and efficient movement of persons. They explained further that patients are exposed to dangerous and unnecessary shaking while being transported in an ambulance across the courtyard.

“We are in the process of getting the design of the work to be done, to show exactly what we want there, such as sidewalk areas, drains, and other necessities,” explained Dehaney-Grant.

“We are thinking about doing it in phases, to maybe get the area marled, and fixed like that and then we get it asphalted. So, we want to be on it to see how best we can get it going within another three months, to see how far we can reach with it,” added Dehaney-Grant.

As part of the drive to secure funding, Dehaney-Grant is making an appeal to individuals and businesses, both inside and outside the parish, to support the project in whatever way they can.