The Percy Junor Hospital in Manchester is making an attempt to collect the more than $77 million in outstanding user fees that are owed to the facility.

According to a release from the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) the hospital has written letters to those owing money and have even offered discounts to those persons who are willing to pay the outstanding money.

"We are appealing to persons to abide by their commitment even if they have to pay $100 per week or $500 per month," Joan Tomlinson, acting chief executive officer, said in the release.

Tomlinson said that inpatients remained the most delinquent group. "The majority of them are those who have very long stays on the wards afflicted with lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and epilepsy," she said.

Outpatients were not a problem as they paid the minimum of $300 to see a doctor. Tomlinson pointed out that the money owed to the facility could be used to build a new accident and emergency department and to purchase additional equipment needed by the hospital.

The hospital serves 250,000 residents in Clarendon, Manchester, Trelawny and St. Ann.

Collecting outstanding user fees is one of the problems that has affected many of the island's hospitals. In early 2005, the Kingston Public Hospital reported that it was owed $100 million which was accumulated between 2002 and December 2004, while the Spanish Town Hospital was trying several measures to collect $84.6 million in users fees owed by patients between April and December 2004.