Newly rehabilitated Barrett Town Health Centre to serve thousands

Some 9,000 residents of Barrett Town and neighbouring areas in St James are benefiting from improved health services at the newly rehabilitated community health centre.

The $43.8-million upgrading project included the addition of new offices, a records room, a kitchenette, restrooms for staff and patients and a nebulisation room.

The project was implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) under the European Union (EU)-funded Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP).

Currently in its fourth phase, the PRP is focused on improving living conditions in underserved communities by providing access to quality basic infrastructure and services in the areas of education, water, health, and sanitation.

The facility was officially handed over last Friday.

Residents of Barrett Town are pleased with the improvements undertaken, which will also provide a more comfortable environment for the clinic's 13 healthcare staff.

“It benefits a lot of persons – pregnant mothers and others who come to the health centre for all sorts of reasons. So all of us appreciate it,” Carol Kerr told JIS News.

“It's such a wonderful gift to all of us from JSIF and the [EU], so we just want to thank them…. everything is beautiful and I give God thanks,” she added.

Another resident, Hilma Moore, said she is proud to have such a facility in Barrett Town.

“Over the years, I have been living here and it was never like this; I am so happy. I feel overwhelmed, I am overjoyed, and I hope that the people of this community will take care of our health centre,” she said.

Chairman of JSIF, Dr Wayne Henry, in his remarks at the opening of the Barrett Town Health Centre, said that the value of the work done should not be viewed simply as a monetary investment but “rather, an investment for tomorrow, our future”.

He noted that the Barrett Town Health Centre is the fifth across the island and the fourth in St. James to benefit from upgrading work under the PRP at a cost of just over $252 million.

The other three are Adelphi, Granville, and Flanker health centres.

The fifth facility is the Bog Walk Health Centre in St Catherine.

Head of the EU Delegation to Jamaica, Ambassador Marianne Van Steen, in her remarks, noted that the Barrett Town Health Centre is “for those who are most vulnerable – the children, the elderly, those people who live with chronic conditions, people living with disabilities. Through this health centre we hope that they will be given easy access to preventative and remedial care”.

Ambassador Van Steen said that the EU is “very committed to continue to assist the Government of Jamaica and we are very much looking towards health”.

Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, who is the Member of Parliament for St James East Central, where the Barrett Town Health Centre is located, noted that the clinic will serve several communities.

He encouraged staff and residents of the beneficiary areas, to take care of the facility.

-JIS News 

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.