Dr. Alfred Dawes calls for urgent action over surgical service failures at KPH

By: Sugar Ray Thomas

Opposition Spokesman on Health, Dr. Alfred Dawes, is calling for decisive action to address what he deemed the critical failure of surgical services at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).

This as he claimed that the operating theatres at the KPH remain offline due to recurring infrastructure failures.

Dr. Dawes was reacting to reports of challenges at the facility due to issues with the air conditioning unit.

In a statement at the weekend, the South East Regional Health Authority explained that the issues at the KPH are related to infrastructure that is over 250 years old.

It added that repairs were underway to restore the affected air-conditioning systems as quickly as possible and return the operating theatres to full capacity.

Dr. Dawes chastised the government for doing what he called the “patch and pray” approach to surgical infrastructure collapse.

Dr. Dawes is recommending that the Health Ministry commission an independent assessment of the infrastructure and allocate adequate resources for definitive corrective work.