Accident and Emergency Dept. at Black River Hospital to be Upgraded

The Accident and Emergency Department of the Black River Hospital in St. Elizabeth is to be renovated at a cost of $29,989,202.

Cabinet has approved award of the contract to W.G. Walters Construction Company Limited to undertake the work.

Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman made the disclosure at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Tuesday (June 28).

Work on the department should begin soon, and is expected to be completed within the next six to eight weeks. The work is being financed through the Health Support Fund.

Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Black River Hospital, Alwyn Miller told JIS News that the scope of work would involve expansion of the department to include an Observation Bay, Resuscitation Bay, a Nebulization and Rehydration area and Treatment area.

“We will also be expanding our waiting area for the clients and our medical records department as well. We will also be putting in an ambulance bay,” he informed.

Mr. Miller said that the expansion and renovation was a welcomed one, that would go a far way to serve the more than 150,000 persons in the parish and in the nearby parishes of Westmoreland, St. James and Trelawny.

“It should be beneficial to the community because, for one, this parish has a lot of returning residents and for a long time the community has been asking for an improved facility,” he said.

Mr. Miller noted that the hospital was located close to major highways between Mandeville, Negril and Montego Bay, and therefore “we do have a lot of persons who come in as a result of motor vehicle accidents. We also have patients coming in as a result of domestic incidents”.

The Acting CEO said the intention was to create a state-of-the-art Accident and Emergency Department, similar to those at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St. James and the University of the West Indies in Kingston.