Ground Breaking For Spanish Town Hospital Expansion This Year
Jamaica
Ground will be broken this year for major expansion works at the Spanish Town Hospital (STH) in St. Catherine.
“We are well advanced; the designs have been completed. We are now going to market for the procurement process to select a contractor, and we hope to break ground this year in the 60th year of our Independence,” said Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton.
He was addressing hospital staff on Wednesday March 23, following the visit of their Royal Highnesses, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to the facility.
Dr. Tufton told the staff that they can expect to see some activity taking place at the hospital later this year to include some temporary relocations as the facility is prepared for major development.
He said that the institution, which will celebrate 70 years of service in 2022, is well-deserving of what is slated to be “one of the largest investments in the history of healthcare infrastructure in Jamaica”.
“I am very happy to say we can all identify with this legacy project, and of course, what it will mean is that patient care will be advanced significantly, and deservedly so,” he added.
The Government of Jamaica is investing approximately $3.5 billion for the expansion project, with the objective of significantly improving capacity to meet the growing public health demand on the facility resulting from the increase in housing construction and development projects that will be undertaken in the parish.
The hospital upgrade will include a new building encompassing a six-storey modern facility with an estimated area of 17,633 square metres. There will be several points of access for staff and patients, including a basement car park and a skywalk to link the existing wards.
The new upgrades will include services such as urology, oncology, cardiology, opthalmology and psychiatry to meet the growing needs.
The Spanish Town Hospital was built in 1952 with a bed capacity of 200. Today, it accommodates approximately 430 in-patients.
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