Cornwall Regional Hospital’s radiotherapy unit back at full strength

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay is now ready to resume its treatment of cancer patients as the facility's radiotherapy unit is once again functional. However, two other critical areas the fourth radiology department and the fifth floor's operating theatres will not be ready until December.

Speaking against the background of the ongoing restoration work at the Mt Salem-based Type-A hospital, Dr Ken-Garfield Douglas, the regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority said things are going well and should get even better over the next two months.

"The radiotherapy area was done in consideration of the number of cancer patients that we usually serve, and we weren't able to offer them service for the last three months, so we got the radiotherapy area back into operation," said Douglas. "That area has been cleaned and refurbished."

"Our second area for priority is our operating theatres, the first phase of which has to do with an assessment of the ceiling because we have a mould issue at the hospital," said Douglas. "Next, we will take down the ceiling in the radiology department, where we do the X-rays. Stage One of the refurbishing work for the radiology area has already started. By December, the theatres and radiology should be back up."

The update comes eight months after operations at the CRH were severely disrupted by noxious fumes in January, which resulted in several departments on the hospital's first three floors being relocated.

Investigations by the Health Ministry and a team from the Pan American Health Organization subsequently found that the hospital's ventilation system, which had been abandoned for several years until its recent restoration to service, was the cause of the problem.