$800 million allocated for Western Children and Adolescent Hospital project

The Government has set aside more than $800 million for completion works and purchasing of machines for the Western Children and Adolescent Hospital in Montego Bay, St James.

Details are outlined in the 2025/2026 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives recently.

The project is aimed at building a 220-bed facility on the compound of the Cornwall Regional Hospital to provide medical services for children and adolescents up to 18 years across Western Jamaica.

During the new financial year, the funds will be used to complete cladding of the building, and to procure additional equipment for the hospital, which will be the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Construction activities up to the end of December 2024 included completion of phases I and II at the facility, structural works for main building, the nurses’ residence, morgue, underground water tanks, and upgrade of the sewerage system.

Work under the project commenced in 2017 and is being funded by the Governments of Jamaica and the People’s Republic of China.