A New Hospital Coming for Belize City

And while the residents out west will have a new public hospital, Belize City will not be left out. Today, Minister Bernard told reporters that the Cabinet has decided on a new tertiary-level hospital to replace the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The funding for the new facility will come from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, or CABEI for short. Whether the building will be a one-flat structure, or a high rise is a matter for the powers that be to decide on. Today, Health and Wellness Minister Kevin Bernard told the media that renovating the K.H.M.H. would be costlier than building a new hospital. The only next thing to sort out is the location, but there is already one that’s being looked at.

 

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“K.H.M.H. has served its time, it has outlived its capacity. There is need for us to be a better facility for the Belize District. And so that has been the decision. The ministry supports that a new hospital be built. Whether we build it now at the current location where the old nursing school was, or we look at the new area that is being suggested next to Eleanor Hall building where there is a huge land space that you can build another tertiary hospital, we have to think different. We have to think big; we also have to look at the options, whether the design will be upper floors, or just as what K.H.M.H. is right now. Remember, when you look at other hospitals around the region, in Merida, there’s not only those flat surface buildings, there are high rise hospitals. You just have to put in the necessary amenities for the people with disabilities and special needs but however, we need to ensure that we start to think down the road. We have to start to think for the future that all the necessary service of a tertiary hospital be provided.  Belmopan, of course, um, the reason for the tertiary facility here in Belmopan is not just only to, um, support K.H.M.H. currently, but also to ensure that we have a quality tertiary facility that supports the salt. The West and so forth. So, and then likewise, uh, the one in case they believe city will then focus on the North and the Belize district. So it’s a long term plan that we are looking at. Um, and we are hoping that now that the cabinet has made that decision, it goes back to today, who will then come back to us and say, right, this is what we believe the bank can afford to do for, for believes, uh, whether we go to the, to the revision, because from, uh, from my, from the report I got, if we were to you. Um, remodel or renovate K.H.M.H. As I said, it would have disrupted service. It would have even cost more than to build a new facility. So it’s best that we build a new facility while we’re not disrupting service and enhance and bring something better for the citizens of Tbilisi District.”