5 health facilities suffer major damage; help promised

Minister for Health Ronnie Skelton said five of the government’s 12 medical facilities suffered significant damage during the recent hurricanes.

The Adina Donovan Home is among those damaged.

But the health minister said funding agencies and countries have made pledges to assist in repairing the health infrastructure.

He claimed that Peebles Hospital, as well as other essential government buildings such as police stations, were built to withstand natural disasters.

Skelton said Peebles Hospital was built to withstand category 5 hurricanes as well as earthquakes measuring 7 on the Richter scale.

Meanwhile, the minister, during a Government radio programme this week, encouraged residents to come together and clean their immediate surroundings.

He said there is a lot more debris now than ever, but the community working together in the clean-up can put the country back together.

“My job as Minister for Health and Social Services is to find ways to dispose of this garbage and debris that is being created by these two major storms,” Skelton further said.