Health and Environment Minister Rudyard Spencer (right) looks at the dilapidated nurses' quarters at the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover, while on a tour of the institution. From left are Deputy Matron Hope McGregor and Matron Denise Malcolm. - photo by Claudia Gardner

WESTERN BUREAU:

Minister of Health and Environment Rudyard Spencer yesterday expressed disgust with the shabby state of the Noel Holmes Public General Hospital in Lucea, Hanover, during a site visit.

"I want to tell you, I am appalled," Spencer said after viewing the nurses' quarters. "Words seem inadequate to express in any appreciable way how disgusted I am, because what I am seeing here can't be right! No one should be living in any of those buildings."

Spencer also expressed outrage that the hospital's radiographic X-ray processor has never been used since it was brought there last year.

"I want to have it up and running in two weeks," Spencer charged. "If it is not up in two weeks, somebody has a problem; everything has been installed, there is no reason it is not up and running."

Spencer also said he was very disappointed with the state of the main hospital building which houses the wards and the administrative offices.

Renovation restricted

According to him, the construction of a new structure was being considered, since the current building was a heritage site and renovation and remodelling were restricted.

Some sections of the floor have been seriously compromised and the roof leaks when it rains.

Spencer was accompanied on the tour by the permanent secretary in the health ministry, Grace Allen-Young, manager of the Hanover Health Services, Verlie James, Member of Parliament for Western Hanover Ian Hayles, and health officials from the Western Regional Health Authority.