Kevin Bernard, “Belizeans Need to Learn to Respect the Rules.”

We broke the news on Monday that the medical staff working the night shift at the Southern Regional Hospital came under threat of physical harm when relatives of victims of a road traffic accident barged into the triage area and attempted to enter the Emergency Department.  It is an incident that’s eerily reminiscent of what took place at the San Ignacio Community Hospital several weeks ago when family and friends of the now deceased David Galindo stormed the facility and demanded prompt medical attention for their loved one.  In a release from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, both incidents are described as, quote, continuous aggressive and threatening behavior by the public towards medical staff, which cannot be countenanced, end quote.  Earlier today, we caught up with Minister Kevin Bernard in Punta Gorda where we sought a comment from him on the latest incident.

 

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“It’s quite an unfortunate situation.  I’m very much appalled at what is happening and the recent trend of events that’s happening.  It started in San Ignacio where, as you know, that was very uncalled for.  We had the situation in Corozal, minor issues there, but then what happened in the Southern Regional Hospital, again… You see, Belizeans, and people need to understand that yes, there might be an emergency but you must respect our medical officers.  We must respect our health professionals, they have a job to do to protect their patients, to ensure that, for example, at that moment, there was a pregnant woman.  There were two pregnant women, there was one approaching the emergency room, they had the issue of the people that had that accident, terrible accident.  And so, but you cannot just barge into facilities like this.  We must respect the rules, hospitals also have certain regulations, it’s about patient safety, patient security and the sanity of the persons that are in there, because remember, we have to look at infection control.  All of these things have a key factor to play, especially when you are not the patient.  So you have to ensure that people understand, you just can’t go into a hospital just like that.  You can cause other infections to other persons who are there with other issues.  So we have to, and I am calling out those persons who did this, they are wrong and we are already looking at other measures that we are going to be putting in place and I have said to my colleagues in Cabinet, if we have to come to the House and make laws to put further restrictions and to put penalties to persons who do these types of things then we may have to do so.  Belizeans need to learn to respect the rules.”