Work To Start June On Western Children And Adolescent Hospital

Work is scheduled to begin in June on the 250-bed Western Children and Adolescent Hospital in St. James.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, said the Chinese Embassy in Kingston has given the assurance that work will get under way following delays due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

The governments of Jamaica and China are funding the hospital project.

“The facility is estimated to cost $5 billion, and this year we have allocated $100 million. We are doing… work just on the ground, ensuring that there is access to water… electricity, that sort of thing,” Dr. Tufton said.

He was speaking during his contribution to the 2022/23 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on May 3.

Ground was broken for the seven-floor facility on the compound of the Cornwall Regional Hospital in October 2019.

When completed, the state-of-the-art hospital will treat children and adolescents up to 18 years old.

Dr. Tufton said that the construction of the facility will provide western Jamaica with the highest concentration of hospital beds and the only paediatric and adolescent hospital in the Caribbean.

In the meantime, the Health Minister told the House that the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) will, this year, begin the most significant infrastructure expansion in more than 50 years.

Dr. Tufton said the work will include construction of a six-storey tower to incorporate adolescent, psychiatric, surgical and interventional diagnostics, along with trauma and urgent care services, and rerouting of the ring road and entrance.

“This is estimated to cost US$31 million… the design for the facility is almost completed. This year, we have allocated resources to relocate the ring road and to clear the spot where the construction will begin and, hopefully, over that time, the designs would have been completed so we can break ground for next year,” he pointed out.