Improvements Coming for Black River Hospital

Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, has indicated that there are plans to improve bed capacity at the Black River Hospital.

He said the demand on the type C facility in the St. Elizabeth capital has far exceeded the just under 100 beds it was built to accommodate.

“The immediate challenge that is being faced here is clearly to increase the physical structure and the bed capacity to facilitate the demands on the institution, and that manifests itself in the areas of accident and emergency where persons have to be using makeshift arrangements because of the lack of bed space,” he said.

Dr. Tufton, who toured the hospital recently, informed that “within another three or four weeks, some temporary arrangements will be made to increase the bed count to take off some of that overcrowding”.

“In addition to that, the medium to longer term arrangements will see some additional facilities, not just in patient care but also in other critical areas that will enhance the service delivery of the hospital,” he pointed out.

Dr. Tufton said that part of the approach to alleviating the pressure on the facility is to increase efficiency in how service is administered and strengthen the relationship between the primary healthcare facilities and the hospital.