KPH overhaul task force to take shape next year

Responding to a crescendo of appeals for an overhaul of Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton said on Tuesday that he is establishing a task force to oversee the renovation of the more than 200-year-old facility.

Admitting that the fix is “long overdue”, Tufton said a recent assessment by the United Nations Office for Project Services showed that the facility’s infrastructure is old, equipment outdated, and no longer adequately meets the needs of its clients.

“The time has come,” he said. “We are going to be putting together very soon a working committee that is going to embark on examining the infrastructure needs, the deficiencies, and reconciling the demands on the system.”

The task force will be mandated over the next year to “refine the specifics as to what the new KPH will look like”.

The minister was speaking at the handover ceremony of three 20-foot containers at KPH to support HIV prevention and patient care. The containers and equipment were donated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is valued at $10.5 million.

They will serve as consultation facilities at KPH.

And while he noted that improvements like these are important to the functions of the hospital, he acknowledged that much more needs to be done.

“The reality is that KPH has, over the years, suffered from wear and tear, and it is quite justifiable why this is the case because of all the work that you have done, because of the burden that has increased with population shifts into the area, and it is the premier trauma centre,” he said.

After the composition of the task force is finalised, it is projected that serious work will begin in the last quarter of fiscal year 2022-23 into the next period.

Meanwhile, regional director of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), Errol Greene, who lamented the scale of outdated equipment at the facility.

“We have neglected the infrastructure, so due to lack of resources, we just have to pay more attention to our maintenance schedule for the medical equipment that we have so that we can get a longer time out of them. In fact, some of the equipment that we have has long outlived their useful life. For example, we have dialysis machines that are over 20 years old that are working every day, three shifts and they’re supposed to last eight years,” he said.

He welcomed Tufton’s announcement as timely.

KPH was built in 1776.

Though stymied by the redirection of financing to battle the coronavirus pandemic, the Holness administration has committed to the strengthening of 10 health centres and the construction of a modern, six-storey Spanish Town Hospital.

Ground is set to be broken in the first quarter of 2023 and construction is expected to take two years.

The Government is also grappling with the multibillion-dollar renovation of Cornwall Regional and the construction of a children’s hospital in western Jamaica.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com