Spanish Town Gets Field Hospital for COVID-19 Patients

The coronavirus (COVID-19) field hospital, which was previously set up at the National Chest Hospital in St. Andrew, has been redeployed to the Spanish Town Hospital in St. Catherine.

This field hospital was donated by the United Sates (US) Government through the US Embassy in Jamaica.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, toured the relocated facility on Friday (April 9), before officially opening it for patient care.

“It is currently equipped with 40 beds, but has the capacity to hold 60 beds. It comes equipped with all the gadgets for power, air conditioning and all the other support infrastructure that is required,” he noted.

Dr. Tufton said that the facility is dedicated to COVID-19 patients.

“Right now, the hospital has over 70 positive cases being treated. It has taken up a lot of the bed space, and as you know, St. Catherine is one of the parishes where we have seen high positivity rates, so this facility has come at a very important time to deal with the overflow of cases that we have,” he said.

Senior Medical Officer at the hospital, Dr. Jacqueline James, said that immediately after the tour, COVID-19 patients would be brought into the field hospital.

“This field hospital will serve us very well. Our number of [cases] here is very high… but we have a very strong and resilient team that has really pulled together to serve the people of St. Catherine,” she said.

“Our mission here is really to offer all the care needed to any patient who turns up,” she added.

Over the last year, the hospital has assigned two additional wards to COVID-19 patients and has transformed the accident and emergency area into a ward to meet the increased demand.