U.B. Land Would Pose Challenges to Patients Says M.O.H.W.

Nurse Lizett Bell is the head of the Ministry of Health’s technical working group assigned to the university hospital project. The group also consists of representatives from the Central Executive Unit within the Ministry of Economic Development, RECONDEV, and the Ministry of Health. Bell also joined the minister at the head table. She spoke on the challenges hospital staff and patients would face in accessing the hospital, based on a technical assessment.

 

Lizett Bell, Deputy Director of Hospital Services, MOHW

“You are looking at how patients would navigate, or how patients would move within the urban infrastructure to get to the facility. So, you’re speaking about transportation links, people able to walk to the facility. ease of access with low-cost transportation. And based on our experience at the Ministry of Health, we currently have the Palmview Center that is located in Maya Mopan, which is closer than this particular area and to date, there is no public transportation goes to that particular area. We are still transporting our staff for each shift to that facility. So you can see how that also was an important factor for us, not only the access for the staff, the safety for the staff in the area, but ultimately the users of that facility. So that facility, why we say the users, because the facility will provide secondary services, meaning the Western Regional Hospital is going to be replaced. So the population of Belmopan will no longer access services at the Western Regional Hospital. They will access the service at this new facility. In addition to the secondary care, this facility will also provide the tertiary care services for the Cayo District and also for the south of Belize, but one thing that we need to also remember is that this facility will act as the alternate to Karl Heusner in the event of a natural disaster. We know that the vulnerability for Belize City and Belize District, so if Karl Heusner needs to relocate in a category four or five, this facility will also be able to accommodate for such emergencies.”