By Grace Q. Bryant
Representative Richard Nagbe Koon has broken grounds for the construction of an incinerator at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center.
The project is put at US$20,000, and is to be completed within 90 days.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Koon said his office took the initiative to construct the Incinerator due to over burdening incurred by the Management of JFK in disposing waste.
Koon highlighted that with the construction of the incinerator it will save the hospital of spending over US$74,000 annually; something he said could be diverted to other areas within the hospital.
“JFK is overwhelmed with a lot of activities, challenges, and actually overwhelm your workings. And that is why I decided to look at the low-hanging fruits, and this is one of the lowest I can find. And I know from here, there will be so many areas I will also discover, and I will also start other initiatives as well,” he stated.
Koon was also quick to mention the renovation of the TNIMA building in order to have the students returned to their building and leave the space they currently occupy in the hospital for patients.
Also looking at the space that the students took in the building to occupy our units for the patients, we are thinking that the next thing will be looking at the school. Where we can move the school, where we can direct the student to the building to give additional rooms for our patient Incinerators are designed to handle and destroy a wide range of clinical waste, including infectious waste, pathological waste, sharps, and pharmaceutical waste through high-temperature combustion.
The construction of the incinerator is a fulfillment of a promise made recently during a tour of the JFK medical facilities, where the CEO, Linda Birch, complained about huge amounts paid to dispose of the waste.
The US$20,000 valued incinerator is on the back of Koon’s proposed US$20 Million projection for 2026.
The fund will address the critical infrastructure problem and standardize the Health Facility with State-of the -Art Equipment.