WESTERN BUREAU:The St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) says it is advancing plans to create a 50-bed ward at the parish infirmary to house social patients currently staying at the Cornwall Regional Hospital [CRH], and is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development (MOLGCD).Speaking at a media briefing following last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the StJMC, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon, the corporation’s chairman, said that the move to relocate the social patients – patients who are medically fit for discharge but who have been abandoned by relatives – is part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that is currently being worked on with the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW).“Some time ago, we were asked what is happening with the social cases at the CRH, and I am happy to say that we have made tremendous progress in working on a memorandum of understanding with the MOHW. We are now awaiting the endorsement from the MOLGCD to ensure that we can construct the additional section at the infirmary, to host over 50 cases from the CRH,” said Vernon.“That means 50 more beds will be available to those who need it at the CRH. We are very close to closing that deal, and we will provide more updates in short order,” Vernon added. “We have met with the relevant persons, and we are working to close it out, and the funding has been made available to execute the project.”In April this year, it was reported that the MOHW had provided funding to support the ward’s construction at the St James Infirmary, and had also committed to assist with feeding and care arrangements during the transition.It is understood that there are currently 21 social patients occupying beds on the CRH compound, while another 45 have been relocated to a property rented by the hospital’s administration at Orange, St James. That property was rented in the immediate aftermath of the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa last October, which damaged equipment and infrastructure at the CRH.Responding to Vernon’s announcement, Dr Delroy Fray, the clinical coordinator at the Western Regional Health Authority which oversees the CRH, said that such a move will lighten the burden that the Type A hospital has had to shoulder for years in caring for patients whose relatives leave them there and do not return for them.“These patients that are social cases need support, and the support can come either from family members or from whatever institution we send them to. It is not like they can go out on their own, and in fact, in the past the patients might leave on their own and they end up on the street, because they have nowhere to go,” said Fray.“As a hospital, we have to be protective of patients, and if they are not able to provide for themselves, the hospital has to provide for them. It would be nice if we have a specific space which we can use to do that, and where we can also monitor them from their health perspective,” Fray continued.Task forceIn 2016, Dr Winston De La Haye, the MOHW’s chief medical officer at the time, said that a task force had been appointed to address the chronic issue of social patients in hospitals. At that time, he noted that the task force would examine the patients’ situations as well as address the question of their mental health, since they would fall in the category of homeless persons.In 2023, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton noted that the problem of social patients occupying much-needed bed spaces is a national issue, with between six and 12 percent of the 4,000 beds in Jamaica’s hospitals being occupied by patients who have nowhere to go despite being discharged.christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com