Says KHMH Needs More Rigid Bill Collecting Procedure

Godwin Hulse

Minister of Labor Godwin Hulse also touched on the proposed raise for employees of the K.H.M.H.  He rationalizes the salary increase in much the same way as the Prime Minister did in his Independence Day address.  According to Hulse, while the write-off of the existing debt at the K.H.M.H. offsets the amount being used for the wage adjustment, there are many Belizeans who can afford to pay their medical bills in full.  He says that the hospital needs to embark on a more rigid bill collecting method.

Godwin Hulse, Minister of Labor

“As you know K.H.M.H. employees are not public officers so they are not subject to that grand bonanza that the public officers are subject to of six and eight percent. However government has to put a serious subsidy into the K.H.M.H. because it is not a self sustaining institution. And of course health is a priority. So what e have done is we have asked to board to redo their budget and as he rightly said it’s not just a hand out. It is to redo their budget to look into areas where they could increase efficiency, collection, reduce waste and then government is prepared to supplement the budget. One of the ways we are supplementing it is through this nine million dollars which they were unable to collect, and God forbids that somebody was in an accident or somebody needs to go to the hospital, it’s not a private hospital where we can say well go to the counter and pay the check first, you have to attend to the person and then the person says well I can’t pay, then what do you do? You can’t sue them and this is how this whole large uncollectible came about. So with that receivable which is on the K.H.M.H. books being written off so to speak and government saying well here is the money. They also need to put in a structure of how we can collect because it is not everybody that is incapable of paying. There is some people that can pay and the government needs to put in a system to see how it is that we can collect, government is also looking for a facility for really indigent people, those people who really, truly cannot pay and so that is how that came about.”

Reporter

“Sir but as to the number of the fourteen percent is that accurate?”

Godwin Hulse

“I think it is, it’s a figure that I will have to be clear to the board because it is the board and the management that’ responsible for that increase so to speak. The way it is working technically is that government is going to give the subvention to the hospital to cover everything including the proposed increase to their staff.”