The crisis at the KHMH was supposed to have been resolved yesterday
– but this morning doctors were back on go-slow at the country’s
national referral hospital. That meant the cancellation of specialist clinics
and elective surgeries – with the hospital running on skeleton staff for
a second day. And so there was another emergency meeting between the Board of
Directors and the Medical and Dental Union this morning. Still though, there
was no resolution and before 5:00 this evening, an exasperated board of directors
told us that it’s unacceptable and bewildering.
Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth, CEO – KHMH
“The union opted to continue with actions which they had initiated
the day before. That is withholding of some services. Because they felt that
some other issues had not been addressed, despite the fact that they had signed
an MOU, the President had signed an MOU, the President of the Union, and the
Minister of Health had signed an MOU to say that we will proceed from that point
over a period of a month and carry out due process in resolving these issues
and normalizing services at the hospital. Now as I said earlier the reason for
this press conference is that we have serious concerns that the actions taken
since yesterday are detrimental to the care of the patients coming to the KHMH
and we feel that withholding of service or slowing of service to patients in 
fact constitute a danger to the welfare of our patients and we see it as a deviation
from the agreement that was made the day before.
The medical officers who are members of the union as well have taken the
position that they will continue their ‘go slow, ’ I think is the
term that they are using, even though in our opinion it really speaks to a removal
of some of the services. They are maintaining emergency services within the
hospital. I don’t know about the timelines of the response of those emergency
services but they have indicated that they will provide emergency services within
the hospital throughout this period. Following on that we do not know what other
actions they have taken or they plan to take as we have not received any communication
from them since this morning when I was in a meeting with members of the union.
The result of that meeting was that they said they would continue their action
until their demands were met.”
Jules Vasquez,
Which specific demands?
Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth,
“Well the demands that had been put to us initially and was for reinstatement
of Dr. Ghazy and which has been accomplished. He’s been written to today
to say that he has been reinstated in his position. The other demands have to
do with the allegations, the broad allegations, unsubstantiated to say that
the Minister must remove the Director of Finance, myself, the Chairman, and
members of the Board. But we maintain that to make such demands without evidence
of any wrongdoing or malfeasance on the part of any of these persons should
be subject to due process.”
Maria Elena Sylvestre, Board Member
"The greatest concern of the board is the reduction and in some cases
the withholding of essential services that could jeopardize the life of our 
Belizean citizens. In the opinion of this board, the issues do not warrant the
withholding or the reduction of health services to the population. At this time
it is our grave disappointment and it is our understanding that the situation
persists and up to this moment, there has been no specific written or verbal
allegations directed to the management or to the Board of any type of misconduct
or behavior. We’ve heard of perception and we’ve heard allegations
but there has been no specific directive given to us about anybody who is sitting
on this board.
We have gladly agreed to be audited by an outside independent auditor selected
by the union. But I think we should go even further. I think we should expand
the audit to the delivery of health services. We need to evaluate the quality
of care that is being given to our people. We need to look at every corner of
the operation of KHMH. We need to shine the light everywhere, not only directed
at the board or management.”
Laura Longsworth, Board Member
“Every time we fail to give the kind of care to patients that they
need, we run the risk of increased illness and perhaps even death and I think
that that is a very serious thing. We need to hold ourselves accountable. The
board is very much aware of the implications and we are not taking it lightly
at all. I think the signal went out that we are not taking it lightly when not
only the Minister of Health worked with us yesterday but also the Prime Minister
of this country. That was a clear signal of the importance that we place on
healthcare delivery and I think that that is the way to go.
Healthcare is delivered on a basis of evidence. You must have evidence
to provide service. You have to justify actions by producing data and good data.
And so I echo Miss Sylvestre’s concern that to date we do not have that
information.”
And while the administration says the doctors have not provided specifics,
the doctors say there are plenty of them – particularly in the acquisition.
Financial Controller Carlos Perrera says that there shouldn’t be any because
they have instated plenty of management controls to repair irregularities since
they come in ten months ago.
Carlos Perrera, Director of Finance – KHMH
“We implemented not only three quotations on large capital expenditures
but on all purchases. The purchasing officer that was newly appointed in that 
area reviews the prices and quotations ensures cost and quality is the priority
with the many suppliers that we purchase from and I can list the very amount
of suppliers. We inherited where the purchase of supplies were being done with
doctors who are employees of KHMH and who own and operate companies outside
KHMH. This created unnecessary conflict at the institution and at the same significantly
disrupted supple chain management. We initiated the policy that procurement
of supplies and equipment will no longer be sourced by an employee that is with
Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. This by itself strengthens the supply chain
management.
We inherited where there was no documentation to show for international
purchases, the respective quotations of those international purchases acquired
to illustrate accountability and transparency. We initiated that 100% of all
checks disbursement be signed that has the requisitions, the invoices, the purchase
orders, any additional quotations for the purchases of those particular equipment.
No matter where the supplies came from at the end of the day we were looking
after the interest of the tax payers and the people from that end. We therefore
initiated an internal auditor that is fully on fulltime employment at Karl Heusner
to perform inventory management functions that supplies issued are being used
and accounted for. It was a norm that the requests for tax exemptions for supplies
was being manipulated where goods were being imported and times only 50% of
what was on those entries was for the KHMH. Therefore goods were being imported
under KHMH.”
And while the administration met the press in the boardroom, the doctors
were meeting two doors down in the library. They declined comment until tomorrow
but told us they do have very specific complaints and documentation to back
it up. 7News has also received invoices which shows the KHMH purchasing pharmaceutical
products from the De La Fuente Pharmacy – owned by the family of Orange
Walk Mayor Phillip de la Fuente for prices which do not compare favorably at
all with prices available from other suppliers. In some cases the prices difference
is as much as two thousand percent. In the case of dopamine there are invoices
which show the drug dopamine for $71 each compared to $25 each from another
supplier. We’ll have more on these documents in tomorrow’s newscast.
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