BARRETT TOWN, St James — Approximately $44 million was pumped into upgrading Barrett Town Health Centre under the National Poverty Reduction Programme (NPRP) implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) through grant funding from the European Union (EU).

The scope of work undertaken includes the construction of one consultation room, a nebulisation room, a records room, kitchenette, staff washroom, two offices, a storage room, and a chain-link perimeter fence.

Additionally, the existing waiting area was expanded to alleviate overcrowding while existing bathrooms, as well as the main building, were also rehabilitated.

Under the project, maintenance training will also be provided to the administrators of the facility.

Barrett Town Health Centre is among four in St James which benefited from the National Poverty Reduction Programme.

On Friday at the handover ceremony JSIF chairman and director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, Dr Wayne Henry expressed deep gratitude to the EU for its commitment to the four phases of the programme.

“With the completion of the four health centres in St James the populace of the western end of the island will be progressively better served. It’s our hope that citizens will attain better health outcomes in the short term,” Dr Henry stated.

Dr Marcia Johnson Campbell, noncommunicable disease regional coordinator in the Western Regional Health Authority and who welcomed the transformation of the facility, cited the need for an additional health centre in the neighbouring area.

“Even with this change the population of this area has outgrown this facility and so a health centre, maybe in Lilliput, is very critical at this time to take off some of the load from this health centre. Certainly another health centre in this area — a type 3 or maybe a type 5 in this area — is going to be very critical,” noted Dr Campbell, who represented the Western Regional Health Authority’s regional director and regional technical director at Friday’s handover ceremony.

“The population is expanding dramatically and we are talking about hotel developments, more hotels coming in, more housing developments coming into the area. We are going to need additional health facilities. It could also pull some of the load off the Montego Bay type 5 facility,” she said,

“The Montego Bay type 5 is where most people go and which is overcrowding, and anywhere you have overcrowding it’s going to mean that patients will have longer wait times,” Dr Campbell said.

She suggested that in the interim “we may have to look at the number of clinic days so each clinic day we can cut it in half — and that will mean additional staff”.