‘A wish list’

Opposition spokesman on health Dr Alfred Dawes has described as a “wish list” an announcement by Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton that the Government will construct four new public hospitals which will nearly double the bed capacity of the facilities they are replacing.

The facilities to be constructed are a new 250-bed Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth, a 250-bed Falmouth General Hospital in Trelawny, a 150-bed Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover, and a 720-bed Kingston Public Hospital Campus at Orange Street, downtown Kingston.

“I must tell the honourable minister, that is indeed a very well put-together wish list,” Dawes said sarcastically as he rose to respond to Tufton’s 20-minute-long statement in the House of Representatives on Tuesday in which the minister told his fellow parliamentarians of the plans to construct the new facilities.