Sanford Children’s Clinic to open in Belize
There is big news in medical circles tonight and that is because the prestigious South Dakota based Sanford World Clinics is planning to open its first international children’s clinic and Belize is the chosen location. A letter of intent has been signed by the Belize Healthcare Charitable Trust, Belize Healthcare Partners and Sanford World Clinics setting out the planned development and operation of the children’s hospital. The announcement was made last Saturday in South Dakota and got extensive coverage in the US media. A large contingent from Belize was present including Dr. Muthugounder Venugopal from Belize Healthcare Partners, the Minister of Health, Pablo Marin and his C.E.O. Dr. Peter Allen. The Sanford Children’s Clinic Belize will be similar to the facilities in South Dakota and will feature state of the art equipment. It will be supported by a newly formed Sanford Children’s International Board and the clinic will work with a number of local entities. Besides working with the Belize Healthcare Charitable Trust, which was formed by the Belize Bank and Belize Healthcare Partners Limited, Sanford will also work closely with G.O.B. and Belize Natural Energy Trust. Sanford provided footage to News Five of the event which shows Sanford’s Rich Adcock making the announcement and Doctor Allen discussing some of the issues the clinic will address.
Rich Adcock, Executive Vice President, Sanford Clinic
“When we me met with the folks in Belize we felt that instant connection. It’s one of those things that you just knew was the right thing for us to do. Belize is a smaller country, about three hundred thousand people that live there, but I believe its fifty-two percent of the population is eighteen and under and so there’s a huge need.”
Dr. Peter Allen, C.E.O., Ministry of Health
“Our kids suffer from malnutrition, from parasites and infections, malaria and anaemia, their growth is sometimes stunted and the achievement of their full potential often hampered. Difficult home environments, foster respiratory disease can hinder recovery from regular childhood illnesses. Children with cancer and others needing tertiary care usually have to travel hundreds of miles at catastrophic costs to access care.”
Rich Adcock
“When we look at opportunities like this, there’s a lot of ingredients that we’ve developed along the way that will tell us what we need. One of them is a connection with local healthcare partners to bring these things about and the Belize Healthcare Partners has been a huge part of brining this opportunity.”
In a press release issued Saturday, Phillip Osborne, one of the Trustees of the Belize Healthcare Charitable Trust, said that the focus of the trust is for the development, investment in, and provision of medical and healthcare services in Belize; for the benefit of the people of Belize.
It is expected that the new facilities will open in 2011.
