B.M.A. N.H.I. Clinic: Providing Affordable Service to Southside Belize City
Located on Regent Street in Belize City, the Belize Medical Associates Southside facility is also an N.H.I. Clinic that offers primary healthcare to residents. Since 2001, the clinic has been working in that area of Belize City, providing affordable services at a high standard, set by the National Health Insurance Program. Over twelve thousand persons access the services at the clinic. Doctor Reina Cuellar shares more on the work at the medical facility.
Reina Cuellar
Dr. Reina Cuellar, Doctor in Charge, BMA Southside Clinic
“The clinic covers a population of twelve thousand and slowly increasing; the aim is to reach sixteen thousand. Our population is mostly elders. We tend to have a larger population of people over sixty. One of our major focuses is hypertension/diabetics. We have established that the clinic already a chronic clinic where they have chronic appointments, so these are patients who get seen regularly and are controlled by general practitioners. At this time, we have four general practitioners. So we try to see at least average three to four patients an hour so that would work out at sixteen at most in the morning per doctor and on an average for the week, I think we go over a thousand patients. The ability to come in, see a general practitioner, to get medication, to be able to do an x-ray, to be able to do an ultrasound, to be able to do labs within the same day, to follow up with the doctor more than likely within the afternoon or the next twenty-four hours, that is a blessing for somebody in regards to having to go through the private or the public sector where there may be a little more delay, if I may use that word. The beauty of the NHI is that you are also reaching a wider community – a wide range. You have from children to elders and if you ask any of my chronic patients, they love this program. They have actually become part of a family; they’ve become attached. And it is not I just come to BMA clinic; I come to that doctor – that’s my doctor, that becomes my family doctor.”
