May Pen Hospital gets C-Arm machine to assist with surgeries

May Pen Hospital in Clarendon has received a Digital Mobile C-Arm machine worth $10 million, through grant funding from the Japanese government under the Grass-roots Human Security Project.

The machine will enable the orthopaedic team at the hospital to expand the delivery of service to more than 300,000 people in Clarendon and the bordering communities of Southwest St Catherine and Southeast Manchester.

A C-arm is an imaging scanner intensifier. It has radiographic capabilities, though it is used primarily for fluoroscopic intraoperative imaging during surgical, orthopaedic and emergency-care procedures.

Orthopaedic Consultant at May Pen Hospital, Dr Safiya Franklin, expressed gratitude for the machine.

“The C-Arm is an essential part of the contemporary practice of orthopaedic surgery, with its use being standard of care in performing a majority of surgeries. The benefits of its use include reduced morbidity to patients, reduced time loss from work, reduced need for transfer and referral of patients, and a reduction in surgical waiting time for emergency or elective procedures,” the consultant said.

Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, Shotoku Habukawa, stated that, with the C-Arm machine at the hospital, the facility would no longer need to transfer patients to Mandeville Regional or Kingston Public hospitals for emergency surgery.

The machine was handed over on August 5 during a ceremony attended by Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton.

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