Kenneth Standard Health Centre Receives Equipment

The Kenneth Standard Health Centre has received medical equipment valued at $3 million, donated by the Jamaican Hi-5K Walk/Run, headed by Jamaica’s Consul General (CG) to Miami, Oliver Mair.

Addressing yesterday’s (June 19), handover and adoption ceremony at the Centre, which is based at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, said the CG does a great deal to promote and seek support for the Adopt-A-Clinic initiative, which is a “professional responsibility being carried out”.

“The extent to which he has established relationships has clearly brought the spillover benefits to Jamaica by making it easy for you and those whom you represent here today, to do what you have done in terms of your extraordinary contribution to this programme,” the Minister said.

Under the Hi-5K Walk/Run, six health centres have been adopted, and Minister Tufton said he is pleased with the collaboration and the drive around the 5K and participants, knowing that their support goes to a good cause.

“It is just a wonderful thing that we all should be proud of and that we all should build on,” Dr. Tufton said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, said Mr. Mair, by engaging with like-minded members of the Jamaican community in the diaspora, they have come together and not just started something but sustain and grow an initiative that has continued “to give and give”.

“I think the Hi-5 not only shows how donations can really help this cause but it is… a symbol of the partnership between Jamaica and our diaspora,” Minister Johnson Smith said.

For his part, Mr. Mair said with 57 clinics now adopted under the wider programme of the Health Ministry, the achievement came through partnerships, and members of the diaspora are “motivated and energised to support things that relate to Jamaica”.

The Adopt-A-Clinic Programme was instituted in 2017 and is a structured arrangement that seeks to engage the private sector, locally and in the diaspora, to play a critical role in improving the provision and access to primary healthcare, via philanthropic support to a pool of 100 clinics identified for adoption.

The Kenneth Standard Health Centre serves a population of 30,000 persons across communities, such as August Town, Hermitage, Tavern, Elletson Flats, Dallas and Papine. It is also a research institution for students from the UWI Faculty of Medical Sciences.