As you heard last night, the KHMH is in crisis mode - managing a major structural failure that covers half the hospital. As a result, key services have had to be suspended and core functions have been locked down.
And while the KHMH management tries to restore normalcy, as it waits on a Mexican engineering team, what is the response of the wider public health sector?
Today we spoke to the Health Ministry CEO Dr. Ramon Figueroa and he told us that the ministry is doing its part to provide the patients with the health care they need.
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, CEO, Ministry of Health
"The KHMH is working with the Ministry of Health to see how we can complement some of the services that have been affected by the health facilities in the central region and in the regional hospitals as well. What is happening right now in the KHMH is actually a re-distribution of space and I think with the necessary investment we should be able to recover most of the services hopefully within the next couple weeks. I don't think anyone has an exact timeframe in which we can get KHMH back to full operations but it is a work in progress."
"One of the areas that was affected is the outpatient services. What we are trying to do now is to see if KHMH re-deploys those specialist clinics to maybe Cleopatra White and Matron Roberts Health Center because one or two of the surgical theaters are compromised, what we want to do is to see with KHMH staff, we can send out teams to the regional and have some of the operations held in the regions because right now they can't. But we do have three other suites that can be upgraded and rebuilt at the hospital. They are in the process of refurbishing those facilities and they would have been done in a certain time frame, I think in April and we are trying to speed that up so now that we the 3 operating suites up and running."
"We want the public to not panic, the building is not falling down, just to be patient with us. We are working with the KHMH."
Figueroa also sits on the KHMH Board of Directors. He told us that the team of Mexican engineers should arrive in Belize in a couple days to inspect the hospital and assess the structural failure.
Meanwhile, the KHMH management team is working on freeing up and renovating other sections of the hospital to restore key services.
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