MBCCI appoints advisory committee to oversee CRH

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) has announced a new eight-member advisory committee to spearhead the drive to speed up the ongoing restoration work now taking place at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), which has been hit with a number of challenges since late 2016.

Already, well over $4 billion has been spent on the restoration project, which was scheduled to be completed in late 2021, after missing earlier deadlines in 2019 and 2020. The project is now slated to be completed in 2022.

The 400-bed hospital, which spreads across 10 floors, is the only Type A hospital in western Jamaica. It has been operating at a reduced capacity since experiencing a noxious- fumes issue, which has since expanded into the discovery of other matters of concern.

“The Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry is once again calling for the intervention of the prime minister,” said MBCCI’s Janet Silvera. “We want the CRH reconstruction project to be declared a national emergency project with all implications, speeding up procurement of services and materials that accompany that declaration.”

Silvera, who was addressing a press conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Monday, said the business community is unhappy with the pace of the restoration and has decided to name an eight-member advisory committee to overlook the project on behalf of the western region.

The committee is made up of a qualified structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, an attorney-at-law, a real estate developer, a medical doctor, tourism experts, and other capable persons, with the capacity to advise the Government on what needs to be done to complete the project.

Additionally, Silvera wants the Government’s three-member oversight committee, which is led by Professor Archibald McDonalds, to be expanded to include three members of the newly created advisory committee.

The advisory committee members are Godfrey Dyer, chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund; Desmond Flowers, structural engineer; Jeanne Robinson-Foster, attorney-at-law; Mark Kerr-Jarrett, real estate mogul; Dr Jeffery East; Jeremy Jones of Sandals Resorts; Karron Benjamin, general manager at the Montego Bay Convention Centre; and Silvera.

“The urgency of this matter demands a timely response, and we therefore anticipate this committee being placed in a position to discuss the same with the executive committee of the chamber at its scheduled meeting in December,” Silvera argued. “We’re willing to work with the prime minister, the minister of health and wellness, and all the relevant authorities to rectify this atrocity.”

In January, Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Morais Guy estimated that the ongoing restoration at the St James-based Cornwall Regional Hospital would cost upwards of $12 billion to complete, but that was quickly brushed aside as being far from the truth by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who did not provide an estimated cost to complete the project.