The Victoria Jubilee Hospital is calling its children back home for a special week of celebrations from October 4- 11.

The hospital will be recognising its achievements with a church service on Sunday, October 4, a radio broadcast on the 5th, an awards banquet on the 10th, a scientific conference on the 11th, a concert on the 7th and a special meet and greet session where famous and not-so-famous individuals born there will socialise. This will be held on the 5th and 6th of October.

If one turns up at the event, the more well-known Jamaicans they might see are prominent broadcaster Barbara Gloudon, actress Leonie Forbes, Mayor of Kingston and St Andrew Desmond McKenzie, outstanding educator, Professor Errol Morrison, Pulse model Nadine Willis, members of the Marley family and poet Lorna Goodison.

Biennial event

The event, the first for the institutions, is expected to be a biennial one and is being billed as a celebration of the "Birthplace of a Nation". It is expected to showcase the achievements of the hospital while recognising those born there.

Victoria Jubilee Hospital was built in 1887 in honour of Queen Victoria who celebrated her Jubilee Anniversary that year. When the building was opened for occupancy in 1891, the bed capacity was 12 and it was staffed by a matron and 14 pupil midwives.

Today, it is the largest referral maternity hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean. The hospital sees more than 70,000 women and approximately 9,000 babies are delivered each year. The institution has a bed capacity of 248. Forty per cent of the hospital's out-patients come from inner-city communities which surround the hospital.