In this March 2019 JIS photo, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton (right); and Quantity Surveyor at RVM Cost Consultant, Rudal McFarlane (left), look as Regional Director, Western Regional Health Authority Errol Greene directs their attention to something, during a tour of the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James to review rehabilitation work.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and contractors involved in works at the Cornwall Regional Hospital are slated to have a no-holds-barred meeting at 10 a.m. Monday after both sides traded blame for the bungled renovation of the Type A St James facility. Tufton, speaking at a
Gleaner Editors Forum recently, said the Government would be putting the next phase of renovations to international tender, citing inexperience as the key factor for a slew of project overruns by locals.
WESTERN BUREAU:
Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has come under a torrent of criticism from construction and engineering interests for claiming that Jamaica lacks the technical expertise to handle major renovation projects such as the three-year-long rehabilitation of Cornwall Regional Hospital.
The Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) and the major umbrella group of construction stakeholders have slammed the minister as misguided, with one expert deeming Cornwall “a messy, messy project” that had all the hallmarks of bad planning and cavalier spending.
Don Mullings, managing director of M&M Construction, the firm that carried out repairs to the roof of the 400-bed Type A hospital, considers offensive the minister’s characterisation of contractors as being out of their depth. He argues that contractors cannot deliver outside their mandate.