Ogunsalu urges Gov’t to sell CRH to make it more viable
Published:Tuesday | December 15, 2020 | 12:16 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Senior lecturer in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Dr Christopher Ogunsalu, is urging the Government to sell the 46-year-old Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) to set the stage for the Type A facility to become viable.
Speaking last Friday at a virtual Gleaner Editors’ Forum, which was done in association with the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), Ogunsalu said if the Government heeded his advice and offload what he described as a “sick” CRH, the facility could generate more money than the $2.1 billion spent on the rehabilitation of facility over the last three years.
“The Government should have offered Cornwall Regional to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) instead of spending all these billions of dollars, running around in circles,” said Ogunsalu, a Nigerian-born naturalised Jamaican. “If Cornwall Regional Hospital is not going to be sold to The University of the West Indies (UWI), for example, then bring in a foreign buyer like St Luke’s Hospital and so forth ... . Let them buy this structure and let them turn it into a teaching hospital, compete with UWI in providing education, research, and patient management.”
“It is wrong to manage patients in circles,” said Ogunsalu, in reference to the current scaled-down operations at CRH, which is slowly rebounding from a noxious fumes issue, which forced the dislocation of many of its services.
Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who was one of the panellists, flatly rejected the suggestion.
“Those suggestions are bordering on absurdity,” Tufton said. “The truth is, any suggestion about selling Cornwall is contrary to government policy and for Cornwall to be used as an income-generating facility is contrary to government policy.”
Continued Tufton: “The University Hospital of the West Indies is subsidised by the Governments of the region. Over 60, or closer to 70, per cent of its operating expenses is given to it by the taxpayers of Jamaica, so I am not sure on what basis they could acquire Cornwall Regional.”
The Type A 400-bed CRH, which is the only hospital of its designation in rural Jamaica, was forced to significantly scale down its offerings after the noxious fumes crisis resulted in patients and staffers suffering respiratory ailments in 2016. A faulty ventilation system was later blamed.
As the debate continues as to whether a fully restored CRH will be able to adequately serve the ever-growing medical needs in the west, businesswoman Gloria Henry, a past president of the MBCCI, said what the region really need is a First-World full-service hospital that can mirror the UHWI’s Tony Thwaites Wing.
“Many persons sometimes have to either fly out of Jamaica or fly into Kingston for certain services. I don’t know to what extent the Government will be receptive to that proposal, but I believe there is certainly a business case for private investment,” said Henry.
“It doesn’t have to be Cornwall Regional. I don’t see why something can’t be built from scratch to provide that kind of service here in the west and to provide First-World, first-class, high-end medical care for this section of Jamaica,” added Henry.
Turning to the suggestion of selling CRH, she said, “Perhaps that might not necessarily be the best fit for that because of the kind of investments that it would require to transform those ageing assets at Cornwall. We don’t even know what’s happening with the existing build-out, but there is a business case for a brand-new facility.”