Savanna-La-Mar Public General Hospital Gets New $29 Million Boiler System

A new $29 million energy-efficient boiler system has been installed at the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital in Westmoreland.

The new Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)-powered facility and boiler room were officially commissioned into service by Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, during a ceremony on Friday (March 10).

The project was funded by the Ministry in collaboration with the National Health Fund (NHF).

The new facility will be complemented by an older diesel-powered boiler system which was converted to use LPG. The older system will now serve as a substitute.

Steam generated by the new system will be used for sterilization purposes, which is expected to significantly improve health care delivery at the Type-B hospital.

The system will also be used to heat the building and water, wash the hospital’s laundry, and operate the kitchen, among other essential activities.

Also included in the project’s scope of works were painting of the boiler room; and installation of drainage systems and storm shutters.

Dr. Tufton, in underscoring the importance of the new system to the hospital’s effective functioning, said it replaces an older system that was operating “beyond its useful life.”

“The truth is that this $29 million facility… if it were absent or if it malfunctions, it can threaten the entire operation of the hospital. People can die if you don’t have a broiler that supports the operations of the hospital, both in the administrative element as well as the specialist service element,” he stated.

Dr. Tufton said the level of investment now being made in Jamaica’s health infrastructure is the most significant, since independence in 1962.

He maintained that hospital plants require routine sustainable maintenance to remain structurally sound to meet the health demands of society.

“I want us to remember, as citizens… that we neglect healthcare infrastructure at our own peril. Part of the challenge that we face now is that we have not approached our hospital infrastructure, over time, in a sustainable way,” he said.

In his remarks, delivered by the NHF’s Director of Pharmacy Services, Clive Harris, the entity’s Chief Executive Officer, Everton Anderson, said the Fund is pleased to play an integral role in supporting the Government’s buildout of Jamaica’s healthcare infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Director of Operation and Maintenance at the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), Michelle-Ann Whyte, in expressing gratitude for the new boiler system, said the hospital has realised monthly energy savings of up to 30 per cent.