New clinic opens in San Pedro

Islanders have been using it for three weeks already, even though the official opening is still a day away and it won?t be fully functional for at least three more months. But after waiting eight years who can blame residents of Ambergris Caye for being anxious to take advantage of the brand new San Pedro Polyclinic. Today members of the media were treated to a tour of the one point four million dollar facility that according to clinic director, Dr. Giovanni Solorzano, will provide much improved health care for San Pedranos.

Dr. Giovanni Solorzano, Clinic Director
?In the past we couldn?t have offered all the services. We didn?t have a gynaecologist at the government clinic; we didn?t have a paediatrician; we didn?t have laboratory at the government clinic; we didn?t have an emergency room that could be open twenty-four hours a day; we didn?t have an emergency room that could be open twenty-four hours a day. So this is definitely going to have a positive effect on the island. Everyone was waiting for this a long time and finally it is a reality.?

The Lions Club of San Pedro has invested seven hundred thousand dollars into the polyclinic while the Government of Belize has come up with the rest of the money in the form of a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank. The building and land remain the property of the Lions Club who are leasing the facility to GOB for fifty years at a nominal ten dollars per year.