Steady progress reported on new Spanish Town Hospital, St Jago Health Centre
Published:Thursday | May 1, 2025 | 12:10 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Work is progressing steadily on the construction of the new Spanish Town Hospital and the St Jago Health Centre in Spanish Town, St Catherine, with both projects moving ahead according to plan.
During a tour of both sites yesterday, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton expressed satisfaction with the developments, stating, “Both projects are work in progress.”
Speaking on the significance of the new hospital, Tufton remarked, “This facility is a long time in coming. It is really a good thing happening in public health, where we are now seeing the manifestation of many years of negotiations – going to Washington [and] negotiating with the Inter American Development Bank, plus the Ministry of Finance and Cabinet of Jamaica, led by the prime minister.”
Drawing a comparison to the ongoing renovations at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, Tufton highlighted a key difference.
“This is a greenfield site, meaning, we are starting from scratch. There was no need to relocate, except the pharmacy and the lab, in terms of the hospital operations. Those are in their original form, and what we had to do is just separate the sites,” he said.
VALUABLE LESSONS
Tufton noted that valuable lessons were learnt from the Cornwall Regional experience, which helped improve planning and compliance.
“From that vantage point, we are satisfied, we are comfortable with what is happening. It started off a little slow because we had some design issues that needed to be reconciled between the contractors and the design team, but once this was cleared up, the contractors have gone full fledge,” Tufton stated.
Praising efforts to improve Jamaica’s health infrastructure, he added, “It requires a lot of overhauling. We have not seen this kind of infrastructure built in health since probably Independence.”
He disclosed that $11 billion is being spent in St Catherine alone to build the new hospital and expand services, including increasing bed capacity and upgrading the St Jago and Old Harbour health centres to serve more patients.
Project manager Orrete Clarke said the six-storey, 20,000-square-metre facility remains on track for completion.
At the St Jago Health Centre, project manager Carl Chin reported that the foundation work for the 600-square-metre addition has been completed, with the building set for completion by June next year. Services will then migrate to the new block while the old facility is modernised and a conference room constructed.