Minister of Health Meets with Nurses Association, Cooler Heads Prevail

Minister of Health and Wellness Kevin Bernard met with the Nurses Association of Belize earlier today to address a number of issues pertaining to the shortage of pharmaceuticals in the public health sector.  The long overdue engagement comes in the wake of serious concerns and complaints that have been shared by nurses, doctors and hospital staff, including those who are employed at the K.H.M.H. The scarcity of medicinal drugs has affected the overall quality of healthcare services being offered at public facilities across the country and the Ministry of Health and Wellness has been facing harsh criticism from its stakeholders. The meeting has allowed for the creation of a timeline during which several goals have been established to ensure that the supply of pharmaceuticals remains constant going forward. This afternoon, Minister Bernard spoke with the media and shared the following.

Kevin Bernard

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“It was a very fruitful meeting, I can say.  What they did was that we brought the concerns from the various regions, including K.H.M.H., we were able to clarify in many cases, in many instances, some of the lists that they brought in terms of what they deemed were medications that were short.  We also realized during the discussions that there is a gap in communication within the regions, between the pharmacy unit and the nurses, in terms of them being properly informed of what is available at the pharmacy or what is not available in country.  So we were able to, at the same time, we were able to identify those products or those items that are still pending for delivery in country.  As you are aware, tenders were signed way back in late August.  We had some delays in terms of shipping delays, Hurricane Lisa and the previous hurricane that hit Florida also created further delays for supplies.  Now a lot of these things, I am not saying this to find excuses, but I am saying that while those issues caused delays, there were suppliers in country who flew in many urgent medication in order for us to be able to ship across the country, including those at KHMH.  So during the discussion we had set out some clear goals, one of them being that one: we will have a follow-up meeting with the Nurses Association in January.  Two: that we want to ensure that with the new timeline that we have put for ourselves, internally, at the ministry, that we want to ensure that we have received all our supplies in country so that when we go through the new tender cycle which we are working on right now, so that we could put together within the budget cycle a proper, detailed listing of pharmaceutical and medical supplies that will be required for us in the next fiscal year.”