_{(l-r) PAHO rep – Dr Karen Lewis Bell; EU rep Xavier Canton-Lamousse and Health CEO – Dr Julio Sabido}

by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 27, 2025

Belizean citizens are central to the 10-year Health Sector Strategic Plan which the Ministry of Health and Wellness unveiled at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza Hotel last Friday morning, March 21, and their active involvement in making healthy choices is key to its success.

A key pillar of the new plan is to educate Belizeans to help them understand how eating healthy foods and proper exercise can help them to enjoy a longer, healthier life. All Belizeans will be active partners in making this plan work, and their cooperation is needed to ensure success. This will do much to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes and cancer.

The ministry will use the latest information and communications technology through tele-medicine to deliver healthcare to people in the remotest areas, who have been underserved, to make health services available to all. The idea is for villagers to be able to consult a doctor, even a specialist at their local health clinic, without the need or cost of travelling to a major town.

The plan will also hold health leaders and officials accountable to deliver proper healthcare to all Belizeans, recognizing the rights of all citizens including women, children, indigenous and other minorities to equal treatment, in line with international best practice and the law.

Making healthcare affordable to disadvantaged people and to others who need it the most, is another key pillar of the plan, which will be achieved by using the evidence gathered of the health condition of people across the country to direct where and how money will be spent, where it will do the most good.

Both Health Minister Hon. Kevin Bernard and his chief executive officer, Dr. Julio Sabido thanked the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) for its instrumental role and support in developing the new plan, which revamped the ministry’s previous health strategy for the years 2014-2024 to address new needs and gaps. They acknowledged that the plan can only work with the partnership of civil societies, non-governmental organizations, educators and international partners, who were all consulted in preparing the strategy, to gather the information about Belizeans’ needs, and to identify those areas which are underserved, to improve the healthcare in these areas to ensure they have equal access.

PAHO/WHO representative Dr. Karen Lewis Bell noted Belize’s progress towards PAHO’s goal to eliminate communicable diseases like mother to child transmission of HIV and syphilis, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria, cervical cancer and other infectious diseases by 2030. She commended the ministry on Belize’s success in eradicating communicable diseases like measles, rubella and polio. More work needs to be done to prevent and treat other neglected diseases like chagas  and  leichamaniasis, she noted.

The Health Ministry can count on the generous support of its international partners such as the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, and Taiwan’s Ambassador to Belize, H.E. Lily Li-Wen Hsu attended the launch of the plan. ROC Taiwan  has already granted Belize USD$16.9 million (Bze$33 million) to build a new, state of the art hospital in San Pedro, with Taiwan’s Overseas Engineering and Construction Company (OECC) as the implementing agency.

The European Union (EU) has also supported MOHW initiatives through the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) Health Sector Support Programme. The EU regards access to health care as a basic human right, and it will continue to support MOHW initiatives to refurbish health clinics, to rehabilitate other infrastructure, and rehabilitate and to train health workers to enhance their skills, EU representative Xavier Canton-Lamousse pledged.

This does not include the $90 million tertiary level hospital to be built in Belmopan, to also serve as a teaching hospital for the University of Belize Faculty of Medicine, which is being funded through a loan from the Saudi Fund.