THE Nutall Memorial Hospital in Kingston has launched a fundraising drive to raise $250 million in order to transform the facility into Jamaica’s leading private hospital to coincide with its 90th anniversary in 2013, organisers say.

The Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which owns the institution, and its management team say their redevelopment plan preceded last the furor about the use of the lands as part of the Urban Development Corporation’s (UDC) plans for the redevelopment of Kingston.

Speaking at a fundraising gala for the hospital at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston on Monday evening, chairman of the Nutall’s board of governors Dr Vincent Lawrence made it clear that plans for the strategic direction for the sprawling Cross Roads-based institution was being conducted from 2008. “This was long before the past summer’s public discussion about the likely future of Nutall and its lands,” Dr Lawrence said.

In August this year, then general manager of the UDC Joy Douglas, in a television interview, indicated that the UDC was interested in acquiring lands from the Nutall property as part of the overall vision for the city’s development.

Following her statement the Anglican church firmly rebuffed the UDC, stating that the church was in no discussions about parting with its property, and viewed any unilateral attempt to do so as hostile.