BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 14, 2021
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño, accompanied Minister of Health and Wellness, Hon. Michel Chebat, on a visit to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for a tour of the hospital’s recently retrofitted COVID-19 unit. PM Briceño mentioned that he received an invitation from the CEO of the Health Ministry to take a look at the work that has been done at the KHMH in order to provide better treatment to those battling with the virus, and he gladly accepted the invitation.
Following his tour of the new unit, Hon. Briceño told the media, “I got an invitation from the CEO and the Minister of Health to come in and to take a firsthand look at the work that they’re doing in the KHMH, and it’s incredible work. I am stunned to see the level of work and commitment from the staff and employees at Karl Heusner. I think it’s an untold story that people should know how they pretty much retrofitted a hospital within a hospital. There was no blueprint. Everyone was learning about COVID. And I want to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to the doctors and the nurses and the entire staff at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.”
When asked if he thinks the KHMH’s unit can now withstand another wave of the virus if necessary, the Prime Minister made mention of a number of fixes that occurred and expressed his satisfaction with the modifications:
“God forbid we don’t have another wave, and we are doing everything possible to be able to contain that with the testing and the vaccines, and I take the opportunity to encourage more people to please go and take your vaccination. But I believe that they are pretty much ready. God forbid, if there’s a second wave, they have fixed what needed to be fixed and they were having problems in the I.C.U. with oxygen and the electrical and all of that. All of that has been done, and they have done some further retrofitting and reorganizing and restructuring the hospital. So, I am pretty confident that should there be another wave that they would be able to assist as best as we possibly can and to give necessary service to the Belizean people,“ he said.
The Prime Minister further stated, “We are fully committed. We had a short meeting with the C.E.O. and also with Mrs. Lydia Blake, who is the president of the workers union, and I am very pleased with what I heard from her, because she was saying that they are committed and determined employees of the hospital, recognizing that services must go on.”
Hon. Briceño also shared that the GOB has allocated $25 million of the national budget to health and the national COVID-19 response as a part of Capital Expenditure 2.