Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton has committed to providing at least one new operating theatre and facilitating the upgrade of the waiting room at the National Chest Hospital in Kingston.

He gave this undertaking following a tour of the institution’s operating theatre and accident and emergency (A&E) department last Thursday (May 15).

Tufton pointed out that the hospital’s single operating theatre facilitates an average of 80 surgeries per month and is often used as a backup for the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).

“I think it’s long overdue for a facility like this to have at least another, perhaps two [operating theatres], and I have asked for the projectisation of that buildout. The space is there, and so it’s really a matter of how you reconfigure… and equip the space, because I don’t think that an entity like this should only have one operating theatre,” the minister indicated.

“I’ve asked the CEO (chief executive officer) and the SMO (senior medical officer) to move speedily with the region, to look at how that is to be projectised and costed, and we are committing to ensuring that we provide that,” he added.

Tufton also acknowledged that the hospital’s wait areas need to be upgraded, while committing to facilitating this process.

“There are several areas where you triage, and the facility has done well in building out, with its own local team, a few additional spaces. But the primary area for waiting to see doctors, I think, needs some upgrading and improvement. I’ve asked them to look to see where in that existing space or additional space that could be facilitated,” he explained.

The National Chest Hospital is Jamaica’s only specialised institution within the public health system that provides comprehensive medical care for chest and lung conditions.

The hospital handles referrals from all 14 parishes, making it a critical institution in the national ecosystem.

SMO Dr Terry Baker explained that several of the services provided by the hospital are only available at that facility.

“In terms of our pulmonary medicine service, we offer the procedure called a bronchoscopy, that’s going down into the airway with an endoscope… and we can see the images on the screen. Through this, we are able to see within the airway, we can take samples from the airway and also do biopsies, take pieces of any abnormal-looking area and send that to the lab to aid in the diagnosis and management of patients with various underlying diseases,” she explained.

Baker further noted that the hospital is the only one in the public health system that offers comprehensive thoracic-surgical services.

“We also offer consultancy services to other institutions, usually via telephone calls [and] we may also have Zoom meetings. So as telemedicine becomes more relevant in today’s world, no doubt we would like to look at that in terms of having greater collaboration between ourselves and our colleagues, so that patients may not necessarily need to be transferred, but we can offer some amount of consultancy service and guidance,” the SMO added.