BELIZE CITY, Wed. Nov. 10, 2021 — This week, local media reported that there has been a shortage of a vital anesthetic administered primarily to patients in the COVID-19 ward at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Also, a shortage of medical monitors has been recorded, as a result of the malfunctioning of 20 defective monitors which were recently returned by the hospital to the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
The CEO at the hospital, Mrs. Chandra Cansino, who assumed headship of the hospital about a month ago, indicated when questioned about the local reports of shortages, that there is a sufficient supply of the medication in question, Midazolam, at the hospital’s pharmacy, but in some instances, they have had to go in-pocket to bolster depleting stock.
“We actually have about 200 vials currently in the pharmacy. And that is not a lot. That is for the amount of use that – for the amount of vials that we use. It’s not a lot. So we’re at that point where we’re urgently in need of procuring some. And the ministry has written to us and I think we are supposed to get the supply in today. So yes, we do reach that point where, you know, we get nervous, but certainly we don’t reach the point that the patient does not have the ability to get the medication,” she said.
Cansino, in speaking to local media, said that a shortage has been evident for months, but has been worsened by the third wave of the pandemic and the high demand for the medication, given the increased number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations.
Cansino said that while it becomes “nerve-racking”, thus far, they have not reached a point where the medication is unavailable for patients.
“For the most part, the anesthesia medications are available for any patients. Yes, we acknowledge that there is a supply chain issue with Karl Heusner and the Ministry of Health, and we were trying very hard to address that as urgently as we possibly can…. I’ve only been here for about three weeks, but I understand that there has been a supply chain shortage for quite a few months now, which has been made worse by the pandemic and very high demand for these medications needed to, you know, to ventilate patients, et cetera,” she explained to reporters
In regard to the critical need for sufficient monitors, she admitted, “Well, ideally we would want a monitor for each patient because that is the tool that helps the medical team to conduct the eyeball assessment without having to go. And, you know, take the vitals that show everything, that shows the polls, that shows the blood pressure that shows the oxygen saturation. And so without that, it’s a little more onerous on the medical staff because then all of that has to be done, you know, regularly, you have to do it. In some cases, every 15 minutes, in some cases every half hour or in some cases every hour before or it depends on what the doctor prescribes.”
It is a matter of concern, since 7News reported that they were informed by one doctor that “this has been costing lives”.
Casino explained, “I know they received, I think it was about 15 to 20 monitors and they failed a little soon after they were connected. And so they’ve handed those over to the NENC which is an arm of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, so that they can do an assessment and establish what was the reason for that. So, no, they weren’t working, but we needed to establish if we can fix them here or if they can’t even be fixed.”
The hospital hopes to determine if the monitors can be repaired in the country, or if they would have to be shipped abroad.
Cansino further commented that she does not believe that any deaths can be attributed to the limited supply of the anesthesia or the shortage of monitors. She noted that they have been accessing the services of temporary staff to carry out functions that would typically be accessed through the use of the monitors. “PCA’s that’s what we use, patient care assistants that they’re actually functioning, perhaps as little machines, you know, doing the busy work of getting the numbers so that the doctors and nurses can properly do their job,” she said. The salaries of those assistants, in addition to the purchase of the critical anesthesia, is an additional expenditure for the hospital.
Cansino indicated that she looked forward to addressing these financial constraints, in addition to any supply chain issues, with the Minister of Health and Wellness, Hon. Michel Chebat, very soon. “Yes, it is certainly nerve wracking. But as I said, we really, I really anticipate sit down with the Ministry of Health and Wellness very soon, and I think we will be able to address most of these concerns and most of these issues,” she said.
When questioned about the matter, however, Hon. Michel Chebat stated, “I think we need to understand that KHMH is the managing authority. They are independent of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. The Ministry of Health and Wellness, the government, gives them a subsidy of 2.4 million dollars per month and it is expected that they are going to be able to manage appropriately. Now the government and the Ministry of Health also provides them with medication and medical equipment. I can tell you that last week Friday alone we provided them with over a hundred and twenty thousand dollars’ worth of medication. No, it is no secret that supplies are not the way it used to be before. Even getting supplies into the country, shipping has become more difficult and because of the Covid pandemic, even the products are more difficult to come by, and so that is another challenge that we are having. However, we have ordered some of these medications and we are expecting in the short term to have those in country.”
He further commented, “… When you have a board and a managing authority they need to step up and take responsibility for the management of the hospital and that is where the responsibility lies. As far as we are concerned, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is doing all that it can to support them and we will continue to do that.”
This apparent hands-off approach was outlined by Minister Espat on the same day that one news station cited reports that KHMH staff were resorting to the use of Crystal water bottles to store waste needles since they did not have biowaste containers. When asked about this, Cansino said she would have to check on those reports, since as far as she knows, they had already received the containers.