Dr. Heusner honoured by hospital
To the younger generation the name Karl Heusner has meaning only as the two words which proceed “Memorial Hospital”. And even that connection may soon be lost as the media prefer the abbreviation KHMH. But to those Belizeans over fifty, Karl Heusner was a real human being, a dedicated physician who for thirty-six years treated all classes of Belizeans from his office on Regent Street or on house calls in his black Model T Ford. Today, almost five years after the hospital opened and forty years after the doctor died, they finally got around to hanging his portrait in the lobby.
Stewart Krohn, Reporting
Dr. Karl Heusner, born in 1872 was a first generation Belizean, the son of German immigrants. Today anyone in Belize with that last name–and there are many Heusners prominent in a number of fields–is a direct descendant of the good doctor. This afternoon’s ceremony in the hospital’s lobby was a long overdue occasion to salute the man and unveiled a remarkably life like portrait. The painting was done, not surprisingly, by Dr. Heusner’s granddaughter Pat. Working from old photographs and distant memories, she managed to put it all together over the course of several weeks.
Pat Heusner, Artist
“I had tiny black and white photograph and then I used my memory and my imagination basically and from what I could remember and what I thought must have been his colouring because I didn’t have any colour photographs at all. So I just judged it on the family resemblance and just did what I could.”
Stewart Krohn
“Did you as a very, very young girl, did you have any contact with Dr. Heusner at all?”
Pat Heusner
“Oh yeah! Sure, he used to treat us when we were sick, he used to come to the house every Sunday morning in his little car, with his hat on and he’d sit in the car and we’d go out and talk to him for a few minutes. I’ve heard all the stories about him and all that, so yeah, I was very interested. In the process of doing it, I had a lot of memories come up and also I could see different family members in the features somehow.”
But as fond are the memories of the man immortalized on canvas, the present day realities of Belize’s health care system are not viewed so appreciatively. Guest speaker, Minster of Health Joe Coye was asked to respond to the accusation that if he could see the state of the hospital bearing his name, old Karl would be turning over in his grave.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“Well it’s a… I would say reasonable criticism, but the hospital certainly has done some good, but I do believe there is some room for improvement, I would say a vast amount of improvement. The hospital as you are aware, the building itself has some problems with the engineering, the effects of the building. But like I have said, not only in health, but throughout the whole country is that we do have some imbalances I will admit, in terms of physical human resource, technical and pharmaceutical, but I believe that if we can bring a better management to this hospital, we should be able to do much better. I think the problem, is the managerial skills that is lacking at the top quite frankly.”
As part of his ministry’s plans to change the status quo, Coye invoked the example of Doctor Heusner as a model for the kind of human compassion and dedication that is required to turn the situation around.
Jose Coye
“Indeed when I go back to the Karl Heusner, the Dr. Heusner that I knew because I was a patient, he was a family doctor, It’s that kind of person I think we need to see in the care providers. And while we do have some here at the hospital, some hard working doctors and nurses, there are a few who could be tarnishing the image, a few bad apples and we need to change.”
Coye told News Five that with the initiation of the National Health Insurance scheme, the KHMH will be able to focus more on advanced care as most outpatient treatment will be handled by private doctors operating from community clinics.
