Mandeville Health Centre services relocated as renovation plan gears up
Published:Saturday | April 16, 2022 | 12:08 AMTamara Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Health services at the Mandeville Comprehensive Health Centre have been relocated to accommodate an over $200-million renovation to retrofit the existing space over the next nine months.
The project, created and funded by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), will benefit the Mandeville and Santa Cruz health centres in the southern region, and is aimed at providing climate-smart, greener and safer healthcare facilities across the island.
In the interim, persons from the parish who routinely visit the health centre are being directed to four other locations for their health services, which will be made available as of Tuesday, April 19.
The new location for curative services (doctor), pharmacy, dressing, eye clinic, laboratory, mobile dental and nutrition is the former Elizabeth House property, 44 Manchester Road, Manchester.
Those in need of maternal and child health, which include antenatal, postnatal, child health, family planning and nutrition services; environmental health, health promotion and education, behaviour change communication and vector control, are being asked to visit the Kendal Camp & Conference Centre, Kendal, Manchester.
SERVICE CENTRES
The Candle in the Dark facility at 10 ½ Caledonia Road will accommodate those seeking mental health services, and the Department of Dental Hygiene at Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Manchester Road, Mandeville will provide dental services.
Parish manager for Manchester Health Services, Sandia Ferguson, indicated that, while they understand the inconvenience this may cause, the renovation is necessary.
“We will be looking at energy conservation for water and light, and retrofitting the facility to ensure that, when we have a natural disaster, we are able to function before, during and after, by making the facility durable and safe.”
With two of the facilities chosen for the relocation on the outskirts of Mandeville, Ferguson said the decision was made based on availability and sufficiency.
“With regards to the section that will be going to Kendal, we had looked at closer spaces to Mandeville but they were not available … NCU had the space that they were not utilising at the time and they had offered that space to us and we accepted.”
She encouraged persons to also use the clinics, such as Royal Flat and Lincoln health centres, that are closest to Mandeville.