BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 10, 2015–Dr. Adrian Coye, chief executive officer of Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), the national referral hospital and the only public hospital in Belize City, today confirmed that the hospital has resumed elective surgeries, which hospital authorities said had been suspended for a week because of an overwhelming influx of trauma cases.

According to a press release from the KHMH, dated August 5, the hospital was flooded with emergency cases coming not only from Belize City, but also from the other public hospitals countrywide.

Tylon Tillett, acting public relations manager of the hospital, told Amandala: “It is a balancing act the hospital finds itself doing, since they only have a limited amount of beds to accommodate their patients.”

The KHMH has roughly 130 beds, but only 28 of those are for the surgical ward.

This is the second time the hospital has suspended elective surgeries in less than a month. Amandala readers will recall that on July 17, dissatisfied staff suspended those services amid their demand for a salary increase.

However, a team of Cabinet ministers was assigned to meet with KHMH board and staff to look into the problem and by Tuesday, July 21, those elective services were resumed.

Tillett conceded to the possibility that elective surgeries could be suspended again in the future.

We tried to find out whether any measures are being put in place to address future spikes in trauma cases that could again impact on the provision of elective surgeries at the KHMH.

We were advised, though, that this is a question for the Ministry of Health, under which the hospital falls.