40 Beds Worth $17.4 Million: Adventist Hospitals Help Ease the Bed Shortage at Spanish Town and May Pen

• The Seventh-day Adventist Church handed over 40 hospital beds worth about $17.4 million
• The beds were for the Spanish Town and May Pen hospitals
• A regional health director said Spanish Town Hospital alone could take 100 beds
• Andrews Memorial Hospital marks 80 years in 2024

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has given 40 hospital beds, at an estimated cost of $17.4 million (about US$120,000), to Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness to help relieve a shortage in public hospitals, the Jamaica Observer reported.

The beds came from AdventHealth, a faith-based US hospital network with 53 hospitals headquartered near Orlando, working with the Adventist-run Andrews Memorial Hospital and the GSI Foundation, the church’s charity arm in Jamaica. They were handed over at the Good Samaritan Inn for the benefit of the Spanish Town and May Pen hospitals. Donmayne Gyles, president and CEO of Andrews Memorial Hospital, said the church would keep supporting the ministry, and noted that Andrews Memorial would mark 80 years of service in 2024.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said the gift was about more than numbers. “This may seem simple. It has more to do with just 40 beds. The beds we have received are much more expensive than the ones at Courts; they offer many more functionalities that are important for the treatment and care of patients,” he said.

The need was clear. “If you had 100 beds, Spanish Town Hospital alone could take all of them,” said Errol Greene, regional director of the South East Regional Health Authority. He said that just the day before, 100 people had been sitting in wheelchairs at Spanish Town Hospital waiting to be admitted because there were no beds. May Pen Hospital physician Dr Ivanah Thomas, who helped arrange the shipment, said she had recently drawn blood from a patient whose bed was “almost to the ground”.

The donation shows the scale of the Adventist Church’s health assets in Jamaica: a hospital that has operated for eight decades, a charitable foundation and ties to a 53-hospital US network. Institutions like these are among the most valuable property a denomination can hold, because they combine land, buildings and equipment with the staff and partnerships to keep them running. For St Catherine and Clarendon, better-equipped hospitals also make communities more attractive places to live, for returning residents and retirees especially.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com