Critical-care services at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) and the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), should be improved following the recent approval of funds to purchase equipment for the institutions by the Jamaican Cabinet.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Christopher Tufton, who made the disclosure while speaking at the handover of beds for the Spanish Town Hospital and the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC), at the Arthur Wint Drive grounds in St Andrew, on July 27, said the response time to emergencies will be reduced.

According to him, the funds will be used to purchase computerised tomography (CT) machines, which “are very important diagnostic equipment that will replace old equipment and add to response time of the population within our health system”.

The gifts for the Spanish Town Hospital and the BHC include orthopaedic beds, cribs and paediatric beds, inclusive of five years’ preventative maintenance, all valued at more than US$200,000.

Tufton informed attendees that under the soon-to-be implemented maintenance policy, there will be adjustments to how infrastructure and management of equipment is approached in the public health system.

“It will ensure that every piece of equipment that is purchased… must come with a maintenance schedule, and that must be at least over a three-year period. With a maintenance policy, there will be significant adjustment in how we secure the critical infrastructure for our hospitals,” he said.

The Spanish Town Hospital has a capacity for 516 beds, while the BHC has space for 289 beds, including a five-bed Intensive Care Unit that provides critical-care services.