IF THE walls of the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) could talk, what tales they would tell! They would talk unendingly of tales of tramcars, the great fires in Kingston, riots (the pivotal 1938 riot), adult suffrage, the impact here of the two World Wars, the 1907earthquake and its 30,000 casualties, the 1850 cholera outbreak, the country's movement from colonialism to independence, and so on.
But since walls cannot talk, let those who have graced KPH's halls do the talking. They have done so in the book Kingston Public Hospital: The High Seat of Medicine in Jamaica, edited by Dr. John Hall and the late Hector Wynter (Publishers: Pelican Publishers).
"It was (established) before the independence of the U.S., to serve the settlers," said Dr. Hall. "Many of the town's people regarded the hospital as a nuisance."
By settlers he meant the country's white population, as slaves and black people gene-rally were not allowed in the hospital until after Emancipation in 1838. Slaves were treated on sugar plantations' 'hothouses'. Some patients had to pay bribes to enter the hospital as during the 1800s, the hospital had no out-patient departments and applications for admissions were processed by subordinates who would reject them, claiming that the hospital was full. How times have changed.
Yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Issues of inadequate staffing, sanitation and location were always on the table. Discussions about the location of the hospital has been ongoing. It was officially established in 1776 (by a Bill ratified with the Governor's signature). The then Jamaica House of Assembly allowed a sum of £800 for the purchase of the site of the hospital and a further £1,000 per annum voted for its maintenance. It was not only a hospital but an almshouse and later a mental asylum. It has since divested itself of some of these responsibilities growing into the major multidisciplinary health facility.
RELOCATE KPH
Dr. Hall said that the hospital was first located at the corner of East and North streets and that the location has always been regarded as 'unfavourable' too many pedestrians and too much bombardment from the loud noises from the neighbourhood. That discussion about location and relocation of the hospital has been unending (and at various times came close to implementation); the island's current crime wave has only given it a new twist. The current argument, we learn from the book's authors, contends that the hospital should be relocated to a more central area which is less intimidating to patients, visitors and staff.
Dr. Trevor McCartney, KPH's current Senior Medical Officer (SMO), is quoted as saying that "you cannot have a major hospital in the middle of a housing development, and even if there is a neutral zone or an empty space surrounding the hospital, there still should be no housing development on the periphery."
If not North Street, then where else could this large, multidisciplinary hospital possibly be located? The authors have pointed to some suggestions within the medical ranks to the large open space adjacent to the Nuttall Hospital or to the open space across from the Tom Redcam Library, owned by the Anglican Diocese in Jamaica.
However persuasive the relocation lobbyists may be, it seems that that move is hardly on the cards of those who can make that decision as about one and a half million dollars were spent in the 1990s to refurbish the hospital in the current location. The refurbishment has improved a lot of the hospital's infrastructure and aesthetics, to make it worthy of the title "The island's premier medical institution."
There is, of course, much more to the book Kingston Public Hospital: The High Seat of Medicine in Jamaica, a good compilation of the history of one of Jamaica's most outstanding institutions.
What do you think about the relocation of KPH? Send comments to eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.
