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Yesterday's event finished after 5:00 so we could only give you limited coverage - but today Jules Vasquez went over all that was said and he found a whole lot that was questionable - starting with the security!

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"There is nothing to hide."

Nothing to hide, but a whole lot to be scared of, apparently. For the first time in this journalist's recall there was a full police detail led by at least four senior police officers assigned to secure a press conference.

Guess they were expecting this guy...

Nigel Petillo, Organizer
(Singing) But if you know what life is worth, you gwen look for yours on earth, but now you see Jah light, stand up for your rights, come on, get up stand up, stand up for your rights..."

But, he never showed - just press and political officials for a 95 minute explainer on a most perplexing public matter:

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"I am very much well aware of the skepticism some of you have when it comes to politicians and these agreements."

And to counter that skepticism they amassed a head table of 5 persons, the Minister, his CEO, the head of the technical working group which made the decision to move the hospital, and two Others: the Chief Operating Officer from BWSL and the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys.

It was a panel designed to justify and explain the move of the hospital site, focusing on what they say are the many shortcomings of the UB land:

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"UB land is in a flood prone area, a creek runs through this land that leads to the river that cannot be blocked or it could cause flooding to the entire area. Also the technocrats at BWSL informed us at the Ministry of Health that to provide water and sewerage services to the UB site that it would cost an additional 2.5 million dollars to provide the service in the area."

"Imagine the inconvenience and costs our nurses, doctors and cleaners security personnel who would work at this hospital would have to endure having to go an additional six miles to and from work every single day."

"To get to the site that UB was offering could easily take `15 minutes or longer. This was a persuasive reason why Cabinet supported the proposal to relocate the hospital."

And this the new roadside property - whose negative features were not discussed - was portrayed, even pleadingly, as optimal:

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"We in the ministry of health and wellness are convinced that this is the best possible location for the hospital."

"What is the cost of a life? By placing the hospital at a location that cuts down travel time by no more than 15 minutes, lives will be saved."

But while the attempt to manipulate emotions was transparent, it's demonstrative of how desperate the government is to win public approval for this project. They also revealed - for the first time - that the new facility will replace the Western Regional:

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"When that new facility is built, the Western Regional Hospital will be closed and that facility will provide secondary care for Belmopan."

"Persons within the Belmopan community need to have access to the facility and finances for transportation and geographic location should not be a barrier to access to health."

Access, it's everything: the new site has it; the UB site does not - that was the main argument presented. There was no mention of the manifestly fraudulent airlift option; it was about access by land.

But to drive home this point they had to concede that a polyclinic this same Ministry of Health opened up 5 miles from Placencia village just three months ago was a mistake!

If we were playing Chess, we would say they were sacrificing their queen.:

A Plush New Polyclinic For The Peninsula

posted (May 15, 2024)
Julio Sabido, CEO - MOHW
"Granted it should have used the same measuring stick as it relates to access.But this time, we just can't repeat the same mistakes again. And I'm saying the mistakes in the sense of where we locate and where we put our facilities. I'm using again the San Ignacio Hospital as an example. We learns t a lot form that I mean the history is there."

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"We have learnt the hard way from examples like San Ignacio Hospital, we can't do it a second time."

No more mistakes! So even if this new land is right near an airstrip on acres of flood prone land, there's no mistake there - because it's all on a slope!:

Talbert Brackett Sr., Commissioner of Lands and Surveys
"It's on the slope. It not in the slope. It's on the slope. It's sloping land. So it's sloping. So it drains off."

Jules Vasquez
"Since it's low-lying, you know more foundation, but you can't go too high because you can't build too high beside and airstrip.have an airstrip. Were these things factors in to?"

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"I cannot speak to that, I am not an engineer."

Jules Vasquez
"Well you said you had an engineer. You're in charge of the team."

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"Yes, we do have an assistant engineer, an engineering assistant."

Jules Vasquez
"Was there DOE, MIDH persons from other areas or was it just MOHW stuff?"

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"No, no. When we did the walkthrough, it was the members of the national working group. So it include the university, it included Ministry of Health and the Central Execution Unit's staff."

Jules Vasquez
"So, the only experts were the health experts?"

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"In our team we also have our engineering assistant as well who forms part of our team."

Jules Vasquez
"Who is apart of the Ministry of Health."

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"Correct."

So there was no one from the Department of the Environment to consider risks associated with the sewage ponds - which at their closest point are 352 feet away. The BWS representative confirmed that the ponds were clean and odorless - and that position was adopted as amatter of dogma:

Reporter
"Residents who live near those ponds and they have spoken about the very strong smell for a very long time in the year."

Julio Sabido, CEO - MOHW
"I don't think that stench, that smell comes from the sewer ponds. Mr Sanjay mentioned already that is not an issue. Odor is not an issue. Those ponds are managed by them. My understanding is that there are other factories - if you want to call it that - around that vicinity that might be contributing to the smell that the residents are reporting."

Reporter
"So there is no stench as a result of those sewer treatment ponds?"

Sanjay Keshwani, Chief Operations Officer
"There is no smell coming from that pond."

So even if you smelt it, that's not what you smelt!

And if you want to see that in writing in a considered technical report - there is none - there's just a Cabinet paper, an analysis, which is of course, confidential:

Reporter
"Can you provide us with the technical report that the Ministry of Health has referenced."

Nurse Lizett Bell, Policy, Planning and Project Management
"That, ahm, analysis was presented as a Cabinet paper."

And the member of Cabinet at the head table insisted that there is nothing nefarious afoot with the 6.9 million dollar purchase from Kenny Zheng:

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"I don't know what, where the media is coming from about a relationship with this one or that one, these are Belizean people who own land in Belmopan. And at the end of the day, a fair price was paid for the value of those land."

Of course, Kenny Zheng is no average Belizean - the cigarette importer is super wealthy and super connected to the highest levels of the ruling PUP as he was to the UDP when, for example, in 2013 his company Kambokin was implicated in rosewood smuggling.

But, not to worry, UB will at least get to keep its land:

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"UB will gain the use of a modern secondary and tertiary care hospital for clinical rotation for its medical students. And it will get to keep its land."

Today we spoke to the Director of Health services Melissa Musa who stressed that the proposed site for the hospital on the UB land would force students to take a 50 minute walk from their campus to get there through Maya Mopan.

We did speak to the Chairman of UB Godfrey Smith who suggested they would be willing to move the proposed site telling us, quote, "if MOHW asked UB for a different area within its 800 acres, it's a matter I would readily take to the Board." End quote.