WESTERN BUREAU:With the completion of restoration work at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) now set to spill over into yet another year, the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) has signalled its intention to seek answers from the hospital’s administration to gain a clearer picture of the project’s status.Speaking at the StJMC’s monthly meeting in July, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon, who also chairs the corporation, said he would be writing to the administrators of the Type A hospital requesting an update.“The CRH reports to the Western Regional Health Authority [WRHA], so either the chairman of the region, the regional director, the regional technical director, or the hospital’s chief executive officer can come here to make that report,” said Vernon. “We can get the report by sending an official request from the corporation, which I am going to ask to be sent to the regional director or the regional technical director, and then it can be presented at our next meeting.”Vernon was responding to concerns raised by Kerry Thomas, councillor for the Mt Salem division, where the hospital is located. Thomas had earlier complained that questions about the restoration project remained unanswered.“Some months ago, at this very council meeting, I asked about the update regarding the CRH, and our committee here should have written to them so we would get an official report as to the status of that restoration project,” Thomas stated. “Last month, no report came, so I was hoping that, in this month, that report would come to the council as to the current status of the restoration work.”“It is disrespectful to this corporation, and the councillors who sit here, that the CRH cannot send an official report to this corporation to give us the status of the number one hospital in this parish, but still the deadline keeps moving,” added Thomas.However, Vernon said any official request for updates on the CRH’s progress must follow the appropriate procedures and channels.“I doubt any request was sent to the CRH, so it is not a matter of us sending a request to them and that they have not responded, so I do not see it as disrespect. We have to do the right thing, which is to send the request, and then they will provide the necessary update,” said Vernon.The exchange came two weeks after Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton announced a new timeline for the full restoration of the CRH, a project that has been under way since 2017. He said he expects the work to be completed within the current financial year, which ends on March 31, 2027.Built in 1974, the CRH has been undergoing extensive restoration since noxious fumes from its ventilation system forced the evacuation of the hospital’s first three floors in February 2017, five months after its Accident and Emergency Department had to be vacated over similar concerns. The cost of the project is now estimated at $23.5 billion, nearly 12 times the original projection of $2 billion.christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com