Public to Anticipate Change in Health Sector Phone Numbers  

As of May first, the Ministry of Health and Wellness officially made the switch from Belize Telemedia Limited to Smart. This switch will result in a change of the existing phone numbers used by various departments in the public health sector. When asked, Minister of Health and Wellness, Kevin Bernard, said that the switch from the public to the privately-owned company came down to saving the ministry’s money. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“Over a year and a half, we had asked both companies to submit proposals to the Ministry. One in terms of looking at cost-cutting measures that we needed to do. And so both companies had provided their bids to us. When the review was done, we saw where in the case of Smart we would have been, we would be saving quite a significant amount of money in terms of the service that they provide and the accessibility to the equipment that they are providing. So, It is in that context that we made the proposal to the Ministry of Finance gone through its necessary processes I think we were starting at the main headquarters and then see if we could expand that out. However, we are not completely going away from BTL, we are still utilizing some of the main lines that BTL offers, but we are trying to ensure that we could cut on the telephone bills at the ministry and that was a decision we made.”