Work ongoing to repair some wards at Black River Hospital

 

Work is underway in earnest at the Black River Hospital in St. Elizabeth to have some of the wards restored by the end of January. 

 

Electricity was restored to the facility on Christmas Day. 

 

Hurricane Melissa caused a significant devastation to the seaside hospital, including roof loss and damage to several buildings on the compound. 

 

The field hospital that had been stationed at Black River High School has been relocated to the hospital compound, but Member of Parliament for St. Elizabeth South Western, Floyd Green, says the capacity is limited. 

 

He says the renovation work at Black River Hospital will involve expansion of the bed capacity. 

 

"We started work on the Black River Hospital to ensure that we expand the amount of beds that we now have in use. The field hospital only has 30 beds, so we are focusing on repairing the wards so that we can get more patients back into the Black River Hospital. As you would have heard, the Black River Hospital now has electricity and we are very, very happy for that. So step by step, this is phase one, a temporary measure to ensure that the hospital can serve more people," he stressed.  

 

In the long term, Mr. Green said consideration will have to be given to whether the hospital should remain at the seaside location. 

 

"But until then, we are getting it back up and running as quickly as possible. It is earmarked that this work should be finished by January so that we will be able to serve more of the residents of St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland," he asserted.