JNF-The-Working-Class-Struggle-of-Half-a-Century

The land forming the Hospital compound was a gift to the Government
made by the manager and owner of Bourkes Estate, Mr. Edward
Pogson. According to reliable information, Mr. Pogson had been
moved with sympathy one day while riding through his fields when he
came across the suffering of a woman who was in labour delivering a
child. He decided to do something in a concrete way to improve such
appalling conditions. So he gave a plot of land on which a hospital was
to be built, under the conditions that the hospital must always have a
functioning maternity ward; failing this, the land must be returned to the
previous owner or his heirs. In the year 1887 the hospital was opened
and named the Pogson Hospital. At first it consisted of three buildings;
the main one had two storeys- the second storey being taken off by a
hurricane some years latter.
But four decades after its establishment, the fate of the Pogson
was at the crossroads. The Workers League took positive action. The
League President, Mr Thomas Manchester, communicated with the
authorities, pointing out that the hospital had proved its usefulness as a
public institution and that the amount of money to be saved by closing it
down would be very small and out of proportion with the public service
of the hospital to the people of that district of the island.
The Union Messenger gave its support. On 14 th September
1932 it commented in caustic terms, It is quite evident that our second
town, with all its historic association, is to be ‘destroyed!’ As a port of
entry for ships it is already closed; the sub Treasury there is also
closed, and the excuse is economy. We hear nothing more of the Pump
Bay Pier being replaced. The Administration’s ‘bug’ of destruction is
operating harshly to reduce Sandy Point to Zero status. We begin to
wonder what is the particular sin of the people of this district why they
are being stripped of their public conveniences which have been provided
for them for years, and certainly not without good reason.... Not
only is the proposal to close the Pogson Hospital an injustice directed
against the people of the district, but it is sure to result in placing considerable
hardship upon them, especially in the face of the fact that to
the present, the Government has not provided a suitable public conven-
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