$7 billion modernisation of UHWI to start this year
Published:Friday | February 11, 2022 | 11:43 AM
The Government is planning to spend $7 billion over the next four years on the redevelopment and modernisation of the ailing 69-year-old University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).
The details have been revealed in the proposed budget for the upcoming 2022/2023 financial year, which starts on April 1.
The project, which is funded entirely by Jamaican taxpayers, has been scheduled for April 2022 to December 2026.
It includes the construction of a new tower with 58 additional bed spaces, 35 neonatal cots and seven major theatres.
New medical equipment are also to be bought.
The breakdown shows that the government wants to spend $300 million in the first year.
That would cover the construction of a new car park; the re-routing of the ring road and the completion of the process for approvals from the Jamaica Fire Brigade, National Environment and Planning Agency and the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation.
The rest of the project includes $1.8 billion for the 2023/2024 financial year; $2.5 billion for 2024/2025 and $2.5 billion for 2025/2026.
Speaking last May after the Cabinet approved $238 million in assistance for the project, then Information Minister Fayval Williams said the hospital's operations were fragmented and not coordinated like that of a modern hospital.
For years, there have calls led by healthcare works and administrators for the upgrading of the region's premier hospital that is also a teaching institution tied to the University of the West Indies, Mona.
An ambitious plan was unveiled in 2017.
Reacting to news last year that the hospital was operating for more than a decade without a fire certificate, the Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Allen said: “It's an ageing plant … Some of these buildings are very old; you touch it, it's problems.”
This latest project also comes amid concerns raised about the management of another major project at the hospital that is aimed at digitising records and administrative processes.
More than $500 million has been paid out to implement a hospital information management system but the project is almost five years past its deadline.
That project is being financed by the UWI, Mona, which itself receives billions from regional taxpayers in annual subventions.
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