Port Antonio Infirmary gets $1.2m in donated items | Jamaican News Online – JamaicaObserver.com
Harold Bailey hands over walkers to Janet Gulab, matron at Port Antonio Infirmary. Also present are Councillor Wayne McKenzie (left), Johnnie Erskine (second right) and Mayor of Port Antonio Paul Thompson.
From left: Fay Neufville, chief executive officer of the Portland Municipal Corporation, Mayor of Port Antonio Paul Thompson, Co-founder of Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica Harold Bailey, Councillor Dexter Rowland, Johnnie Erskine, Councillor Deionne Hunter, and Councillor Wayne McKenzie pose for a photo after the handover of the items.
Some of the items donated by the United States-based Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica.
MEMBERS of the United States-based Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica recently donated items valued at $1.2 million to the Port Antonio Infirmary in Portland.The items included wheelchairs, walkers, adult pampers, and food.In making the presentation, Harold Bailey, co-founder and secretary of the organisation, said he hoped that the items would be of great assistance to patients at the facility. “It is sometimes difficult, financially, for the government alone to provide for both the workers and the patients who are here so we have decided to help,” Bailey said. “It is [customary] for us in the Diaspora to reach out as much as we possibly can to assist where we can.”Bailey, however, voiced his frustration about the delay in clearing the items at the wharf. “I would like to publicly make an appeal to the powers that be, whether the Central Government or whoever is responsible, to take the necessary steps to ease the bureaucracy that exists so that you don’t have to encounter roadblocks like these,” he pleaded. Mayor of Port Antonio Paul Thompson expressed thanks, on behalf of the council, for the donations, while urging the Government to look at the concerns raised by Bailey, to encourage more donors. “It is so good to see that a citizen of Jamaica can be so touched to make such a warm presentation here today. I would like on your behalf also to say to the powers that be, whenever time you are here with donations like these they must remove all obstacles from your way because you have to be flexible when you are dealing with the most vulnerable and unfortunate ones. “We thank you and your organisation for your gift and we ensure that they will be used to enrich the lives of the [patients] here,” he said. The donations were handed over to matron of the infirmary, Janet Gulab. —Everard Owen
