A growing vendors arcade at St Ann’s Bay Hospital, St Ann is raising concern among people, including the staff at the hospital.New board chairman of the North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA) Tyrone Robinson told the North Coast Times that he was aware of the situation and has plans to do something about it.Nearly a dozen vendors have erected shacks and stalls next to the hospital gate within 50 yards of the Accident and Emergency ward. The area is without running water and sanitation, is unpaved and is a muddy when it rains.Most vendors sell food and drink, including cooked meals but also available are dry goods, including clothing, and shoes, as well as hair products. “It can’t stay there we don’t know what kinds of rodents and insects and whatever is there. This is a hospital and it can’t be there,” said a staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity. She said staff had complained about the vendors including those selling on the hospital grounds but without any action being taken.The situation has become worse over the last year and nothing has been done either by the health authorities or by the St Ann Parish Council.The lands on which the shops have been built belong to government.Contacted about the complaints, the new chairman, Mr Robinson told The Times that he intends to do something about it. He admits it is an “eyesore” and was unhealthy next to the hospital grounds. Asked if he had enquired how the situation had existed for so long, Mr Robinson said he had not but that as chairman he was responsible to changing it.Mr Robinson said the car park for the hospital was to be extended onto the area now occupied by the vendors and proper arrangements made for them.“We won’t be throwing off people,” from next door the hospital, he said. “We can’t put people out of work.” He would not give a date for changing the situation but said there would be no expansion and only those vendors now there would be allowed to stay when the new facilities are created. Mr Robinson said land had to be acquired before the changes would be effected.“The existing people will remain but in an orderly fashion,” Mr Robinson said. He said it takes time doing things properly. It was suggested to him that in the interim things would get worse but he said that would not be allowed.
