St Andrade Sinclair (third right), CEO of May Pen Hospital, one of the beneficiaries of this year’s Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run, addressing yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange. Flanking him are (from left) Stacey McKenzie, Jamaican/Canadian fashion model and runway coach, a patron of the event; Christopher Zacca, president and CEO, Sagicor Group Jamaica; Simone Walker, vice-president, group marketing, Sagicor Jamaica, and executive director, Sagicor Foundation; Lurline Less, chair of the Diabetes Association of Jamaica, another of the beneficiaries; and Dr Desiree Tulloch-Reid, president, Lupus Foundation of Jamaica, the third beneficiary. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
Like all other major health institutions in the country, May Pen Hospital in Clarendon is struggling.
That is why St Andrade Sinclair, the hospital’s chief executive officer, is happy that organisers of the Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run decided to include the Type C hospital in its group of beneficiaries this year.
The other beneficiaries are Diabetes Association of Jamaica, and Lupus Foundation of Jamaica. The run is scheduled for February 17.
“It is not too often that you see a lot of corporate bodies give back to people like us who really need it, especially health care,” Sinclair said at yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue office in Kingston.
“Health care is woefully short when it comes to financing, and that is our big problem. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), the average amount that should be contributed from your GDP should be eight per cent, and currently the Government provides 5.9 per cent,” Sinclair said, adding that health care in the country “is under serious problems”.
On the long list of needs at the hospital’s neo-natal unit are: a resuscitaire machine, incubators, phototherapy lamps, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines, ambubags and resuscitation masks, one emergency trolley, 14 bassinets, 12 IV infusion pumps, umbilical catheters, vital sign monitors, and a portable X-ray machine.
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