BELIZE CITY, Wed. Mar. 11, 2020– Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic. The respiratory disease is now in more than 100 countries, and more than 4,000 persons have died from it. WHO urged countries to step up their preventative measures.

In Belize, the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), the national referral hospital, has decided to construct a COVID-19 isolation ward on its compound.

That decision has angered the KHMH Workers Union, who came out swinging against the decision today, telling the media that the KHMH administration is taking a big risk by making such a decision, because it is only a matter of time before COVID-19 hits the shores of Belize.

Andrew Baird, the vice president of the KHMH Workers Union, told the media that the isolation ward that the Ministry of Health has constructed on the KHMH compound is not the kind of facility that is needed to isolate patients of COVID-19.

“You need a negative pressure room. What they have there is far from negative pressure. The ceiling is porous. You need a non-porous ceiling. All the fixtures, light fixtures and stuff must be properly sealed. The doors must be self-sliding doors in a negative pressure room. The doors that are presently there, all the doors after I go in and take care of that patient and get contaminated I will have to put my hands on those doors. Somebody else will put their hands on those doors. Furthermore, the doors are not sealed. In other words, the virus, bacteria will flow under the door and into the corridors, and innocent staff and other patients will get sick. In a negative pressure room, the AC unit is a no-no. In Singapore, recently they did a research; three patients with coronavirus were in a room. They tested the AC and the AC tested positive for coronavirus, which means that the virus, bacteria travelled through the AC system. Karl Heusner for the most of the places has one central unit,” he said.

The president of the KHMH Workers Union, Lidia Alpuche Blake, told reporters, “During the SARS in 2003 a Mennonite house was bought and placed right opposite Karl Heusner. It was an isolation area close to the Karl Heusner, but far away from Karl Heusner, not in-house. So when we heard that they wanted to bring patients in Karl Heusner and the area they are designating it. And all who worked here know that it entails putting that area there, the employees stating, no, it can’t be. Then you hear that. You hear the DHS saying something, then you hear something else there. Then we ask the question, why are we taking this responsibility? Okay, we will, but compensate us for the extra mile that we are going to go through”.

The two KHMH union representatives believe that putting the isolation unit on the grounds of the hospital would put the entire hospital staff at risk.

 Blake told reporters, “Let’s plan something for the nation. It is coming. We don’t know at what level we will reach it, but we cannot put the only national tertiary referral hospital for the public in jeopardy by putting the isolation unit within the hospital. Get a Mennonite house probably outside. Our press release was sending that message to them. Let’s bring all who are on the ground to the table and find how we can find a solution that will work for the nation.”

Baird commented, “The union position in reference to the use of Karl Heusner to isolate or see patients diagnosed or with symptoms of coronavirus is no. This is not about Karl Heusner. This is about the nation of Belize. Can the country of Belize afford the national referral center being quarantined for one day, two days or three days because there is widespread of COVID-19 among the staff and adult patients within this institution? Because once we have a widespread among staff they will quarantine Karl Heusner. Can this country afford that? That’s the first question that the powers that be must ask themselves. We see what is happening in Italy. We see what continues to happen around the world with healthcare givers on the frontline. They become patients. If we at the Karl Heusner become patients, who will be on the frontlines for the national referral center?”

Feature photo: Lidia Alpuche Blake, President, K.H.M.H.A. Workers Union (Photo courtesy News 5