Rasbert Turner, Gleaner WriterSpanish Town, St. Catherine:
Key administrative staff at the Spanish Town Hospital were forced to return home yesterday as flood waters, almost three feet high, invaded the hospital grounds and administrative buildings.
As Hurricane Dennis battered the island on Thursday, the laundry area, the accounts department, and sections
leading to the maternity ward of the institution could not be accessed by foot.
flooded waters
As result, workers from the laundry and the accounts departments returned home, while pregnant mothers and persons employed in the maternity ward had to be ferried into that area by ambulance because flood waters had inundated the area.
When The Gleaner visited the institution yesterday morning, several workers dressed in water boots and rain coats used brooms, shovels and other tools to clear blocked drains in the institution.
blocked drains
Some told The Gleaner that the hospital has been flooded every time there is a period of heavy rainfall. This, they claim, is due to blocked drains along Burke Road which cause a diversion of water into the
hospital grounds.
Visitors to the institution also expressed outrage at the conditions, and demanded that the authorities act to ensure that drains which serve the institution are maintained properly.
Efforts to contact the hospital's chief executive officer, Pauline Reid, proved futile.
