Adopt a Clinic Programme Lauded

Community members and health administrators in Hanover have commended the Ministry of Health for undertaking the Adopt a Clinic programme, under which the Cascade Health Centre has become the parish’s first beneficiary.

Expressing her gratitude during the official launch of a $1 million per year sponsorship of the health facility by the Jamaica 55 Charities Group UK, on March 22, Parish Manager of the Hanover Health Services, Dawn Harvey, told Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, that her unit is eternally grateful to be among the first recipients of support from the group.

“I truly appreciate this programme. Thank you for the concept and the initiative where facilities are adopted and spotlighted.  We feel like we are being showered with care and love and it also highlights for us one of the many principles of good health care and that is partnership and support, and this Adopt a Clinic concept certainly embodies the whole of that,” she said.

“We really do feel like you have made us part of your family; you are now part of our family, so thank you Jamaica 55 Charities,” she added.

For his part, Regional Director of the Western Regional Health Authority, Dr. Ken-Garfield Douglas, described the Adopt a Clinic programme as a “superb initiative,” which is in the interest of good community participation, and which will also benefit the wider Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA).

“We know that this is a valuable contribution to the continuing care of this health facility, the maintenance of the building, the maintenance of the grounds and the possibility of also getting some much-needed equipment for the health centre,” Dr. Douglas said.

“It is an initiative that we applaud from the persons in the Diaspora who have undertaken to provide this adoption and continuing care.  This care, we note, has been pledged through to 2023 and we are hopeful that the participation of the community and the persons who have made this pledge will yield good fruit for the community and for us in the western region,” he added.

Retired schoolteacher, Escar Wynter, of the Cascade community, told JIS News that she too is “greatly appreciative” of the support given to the health facility in the rural farming community, which also serves the communities of Claremont, Flower Hill, Great Valley and others.

“I know for sure it is appreciated by all, as it is our main primary health service.  We also are happy because we will have things that will be able to assist in better health care and so the workers here will be able to administer their duties in a more comfortable environment,” Mrs. Wynter said.

“On behalf of the Cascade community, I just want to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the folks in England who considered us.  As we would say in Jamaica, they ‘have not thrown stones behind them’, but they have remembered where they came from and we want to just pray God’s blessing on them that their basket will never want,” she added.