New hospital in San Ignacio operational
The official inauguration is still in the planning stage but the newly constructed San Ignacio Town Hospital is already in operation. With some minor final touches being completed, the opening should take place in a couple of months. The new facility which is located on the Bullet Tree Road, offers the same services as the previous one on Hospital Lane. But while there is a spanking new building, the person in charge of the facility, Doctor Maria Goncalves, says there are still some kinks to work out, such as getting the morgue functioning. She also acknowledges the partnerships with private sector institutions in the area.
Doctor Maria Goncalves, Ag. Deputy Reg. Mgr.
“One of the challenges that we have is that we don’t have the B.H.I.S. yet in place, which is the Belize Health Information System. The material for San Ignacio Hospital is not here yet, but is in the country, the medical instrument.”
Marion Ali
“Equipment, do you have that?”
Dr. Maria Goncalves
“What we need, yes we do have. To admit a patient trauma we’re going to have the patient to Belmopan or Belize City, depending on the problem we might have.”
Marion Ali
“So severe cases are transferred still?”
Dr. Maria Goncalves
“Yes. We have eight beds for emergency right now, just for emergency. One of the things in San Ignacio is very peculiar. We work very closely with Loma Luz and San Gabriel Clinic. It’s not just the doctors from San Ignacio Hospital. No, it’s the doctors from San Ignacio community. When I say community, it involves all the community, the doctors who work in private, the doctors who work in Loma Luz. If we have any kind of emergency here we ask them, they would come in here or we take patients there.”
Marion Ali
“Isn’t there a difference between private care, public care. If you don’t have insurance or if you don’t have the funds you can’t access private institution?”
Dr. Maria Goncalves
“That is not when we have emergency. Everything here is about patients. Everything here is for patients. We don’t seek to – if you don’t have you can’t go to Loma Luz. They don’t work really like that. When you have emergency you can’t go to San Gabriel Clinic. No Doctor Godoy has done surgery for us free of cost, Loma Luz has done surgery for us free of cost.”
Doctor Goncalves says the hospital is planning to offer ophthalmology in the future.
