RUDYARD SPENCER, minister of health and environment, announced yesterday that the Government would, next week, sign an agreement to acquire the St Joseph's Hospital in Kingston.

In his contribution to the 2008/2009 Sectoral Debate in Gordon House, Spencer said the acquisition of the hospital would allow the administration to expand health care to meet the growing population of Kingston and St Andrew.

He said the Kingston Public Hospital was overcrowded and announced that some of its services would be transferred to the St Joseph's Hospital.

According to Spencer, the Government plans to develop the facility into a centre of excellence in health-care delivery in the Western Hemisphere.

Boost to health services

St Joseph's is currently a 44-bed facility located on 12 acres of land.

It provides a wide range of surgical, medical, psychiatric, renal dialysis, rehabilitation and other specialised services.

Spencer said the Government will also focus this year on the renewal of primary health care, noting that a committee has been established to accomplish a number of objectives by September 2008.

On another matter, the health minister told parliamentarians that the Government was taking steps to deal with medical waste.

He said the construction of a medical waste facility in Kingston was near completion. The facility, will accept medical waste generated from all government health care centres in the southeastern region.

The World Bank has funded the construction of the facility at a cost of $114 million.

Meanwhile, Spencer said since the implementation of free health care on April 1, more than 422,000 persons have benefited. This means that fees totalling $450 million have been forgone over the period, he added.