New Type 1 Health Centre for Jeffrey Town

Ground was broken on Wednesday (April 1) for the construction of a Type 1 Health Centre in the community of Jeffrey Town in St. Mary, which will provide primary health services for some 4,000 persons.
The $11 million project is being financed by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sport and Education (CHASE) Fund, which will provide approximately $6 million of the project cost and the Digicel Foundation, which will supply the remainder.
The health facility will provide services such as ante-natal and post natal care, chronic disease management and control, family planning, children health care, HIV/AIDS management, cancer screening and early detection, referral of health problems and immunisation. Work will get underway on Monday (April 6) and will last for six months.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Environment, Andre Franklin, commended the partners in the project. He said that health care was a very important human right and the Government was making every effort to encourage partnerships to realise its health goals.
Noting that the Government was fully committed to ensuring that the residents of St. Mary had access to quality health care, Mr. Franklin pointed to the establishment of a new health centre in Highgate in 2008, noting that similar facilities in Gayle, Port Maria, Retreat and Islington, would be upgraded shortly.
Minister of State with Responsibility for Local Government, Robert Montague, who is Member of Parliament for Western St. Mary, said he was pleased about the effort to provide Jeffrey Town with a new clinic and thanked CHASE and the Digicel Foundation for providing financing.
Executive Director of the Digicel Foundation Major General Robert Neish, and Chief Executive Officer of the CHASE Fund Billy Heaven, gave the commitment of their organisations to work closely with the contractors to ensure that the project was completed on time and within budget.