May Pen Hospital to enhance orthopaedic care

The May Pen Hospital in Clarendon is shortly to have the benefit of a key piece of medical equipment that is to enhance orthopaedic care at the facility.

This is thanks to the generosity of the government of Japan which, through the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, on December 6, signed the grant agreement with the Government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Health, for the purchase of a mobile digital C-Arm valued at $10 million.

A mobile C-arm is a medical imaging device based on X-ray technology that can be used flexibly in various operating rooms within a clinic. The name is derived from the C-shaped arm used to connect the X-ray source and X-ray detector to one another.

"Having the machine at May Pen Hospital will reduce the cost to transfer or have patients remain in hospital for weeks until available surgical time is available at a hospital with a C-arm; reduce time lost from work/loss of income for the patient; reduce morbidity of illness that a delay in having surgery will cause; and reduce the time for hospitalisation and the waiting list for surgery," noted Health Minister Christopher Tufton.

Orthopaedic surgery, mean-while, is a new service offered at the hospital, with an outpatient clinic since February 6, 2017, and inpatient service commencing August 2, 2017. The Outpatient Department visits have increased significantly since February 2017, when it started with eight patients per clinic to as much as 105 patients seen in a clinic.

Japanese Ambassador to Jamaica, Hiromasa Yamazaki said, that the government and people of Japan were pleased to support the Government and people of Jamaica under their Grass Roots Human Security Projects.

First Collaboration

"I am pleased to note that this is the first collaboration between the Embassy of Japan and the May Pen Hospital, and it is my greatest hope that this new human security project will primarily serve the needs of everyone for orthopaedic surgery," he noted.

"Our commitment to assist in improving the health sector needs of Jamaica continues to be a core priority for the people and government of Japan and so, as a responsible member of the global community, we wholeheartedly support our latest medical cooperation with the May Pen Hospital to serve the needs of the people of Jamaica," the ambassador added.