Falmouth Hospital Repairs Near Finish as Bed Capacity Set to Rise

CATHERINE HALL, St James — Sections of Falmouth Public General Hospital in Trelawny that were battered by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa last October should finish renovation by the end of next month, according to Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who said the work will bring a marked increase in patient bed space at the facility.

The minister shared the update with journalists following a tour of the Catherine Hall Health Centre in St James last week. That site was among 16 health facilities across the island that suffered severe damage when the storm passed.

"Come the end of July, we would move patients from the makeshift A&E [Accident and Emergency], which was previously the COVID-19 ward, back into the A&E. They are expected also, come the end of July, to complete the ward. There's a two or three-floor building that represents the wards. They have slabbed the roof, so the slabbing, of course, means future hurricanes would not impact [the facility], except for surges if water comes across the road from the sea," Tufton explained.

He said technicians are presently installing air conditioning units, while tilers are expected to begin floor work within a week.

On bed numbers, Tufton said 20 additional places should become available once more ward space opens next month, lifting capacity above the 147 beds the hospital had before Melissa struck. "By the way, that's coming from 77 beds when I became minister [in 2016]. We had made significant progress in terms of bed additions," he noted.

The minister said the expected bed increase also reflects an end to outsourcing elective surgeries from the under-renovation Cornwall Regional Hospital to Falmouth. "Falmouth is going to be better off, and starting in July, the pressures on the system we expect to ease. I could say the same for Black River [in St Elizabeth], which is now adding the finishing touches, and Noel Holmes [in Hanover], where work is going on," he added.

Tufton also reported progress at health centres and two hospitals in St James, though he acknowledged ongoing inconvenience at some sites. "I know it's still inconveniencing a lot of people because some of the health centres which were temporarily repaired still have issues — because temporary means zinc roof without ceiling, so it could get hot. The engineers are in the field doing the assessment, and we're now beginning to get from the engineers the medium to longer-term repairs. I'll comment on those on a parish-by-parish basis as time goes by," he said in reference to the health centres.

At Catherine Hall, which was badly affected by flood water, repairs are complete and as much as 90 per cent of services are back in operation. Tufton said the dental unit should return to full service within two weeks once a new dental chair is installed. "It means that people are coming back, which is good; we need that. Previously, they used to go to other places like Type 5 [in the heart of Montego Bay], which was challenging because of distance and so on," he argued. The centre currently employs roughly 30 staff members.