Tufton urges MoBay businesses to ‘knock heads’ on private wing for Cornwall Regional Hospital
Shari-Lee Crooks / Our Today
Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton has outlined the potential benefits of adding a private wing to the under-renovation Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.
The wing would be akin to the Tony Thwaites Wing at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston.
Addressing the Montego Bay chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) at Sandals Montego Bay on November 28, Tufton noted that there is space available for the addition of the facility and would allow for the pooling of specialist skillsets at the hospital.
“I think there is a role in the context of this area, with the planes flying over and landing, for a private facility. I think we have the space, and we are negotiating. We just leased six acres adjoining the facility, and it is being prepared for the contractor to set up shop with his equipment and storage,” Tufton outlined.
Tufton suggested that the time has come for there to be serious thought given to the idea and appealed to the business community and investors in the city to “knock heads on this”. He said he believes a private wing akin to that at UWHI would be an idea worth exploring, especially with high volume of visitors that the city welcomes.
The health minister highlighted that the Cornwall Regional Hospital, in addition to the Western Children and Adolescent Hospital, which in currently under construction on the grounds, will together have a combined capacity of 700 beds.
Tufton said that similar to what happens in Kingston, the same specialists, surgeons and doctors that will service the combined 700-bed facility will be available for private practice on the private wing. He suggested that this would be a major opportunity given the concentration of specialists that will staff the Cornwall Regional Hospital to offer the option of private care similar to what their colleagues do in Kingston.
He also provided the gathering with an update of the rehabilitation project being undertaken at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, which he shared was in its third and final phase and set for completion in April 2024.
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