PM Barrow responds to K.H.M.H. stalemate
Prime Minister Dean Barrow returned to Belize this afternoon after attending the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit in Guyana. And there is plenty on his plate. The dispute between doctors and the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Board continues to fester. On June seventeenth, the P.M. promised that heads will roll if there is no sound explanation in cases of wrongdoing. A quick audit in fact found numerous cases of inflated prices for medical supplies, but no one has yet been found responsible. On Friday, the Belize Medical and Dental Union called off negotiations with the K.H.M.H. Board mediated by Labour Commissioner, Ivan Williams. This morning at the national referral hospital, at least fifty percent of the doctors were on a sick-out, that is, twenty-four doctors supposedly fell ill. News Five caught up with the Prime Minister at the P.G.I.A. and asked him what’s next at the K.H.M.H.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“It is beginning to seem to me, as though the doctors are going too far. They must remember the oath they took, the duty of care, the patients—forget the duty of care and the oath to their employer. I want to appeal to them to operate more on that basis. It is not as though the board has refused to compromise. It is not as though the board has been unreasonable. Nobody doubts that this thing started as a consequence of legitimate grievances that the doctors have had, but every effort has been made to address those grievances. I really am extremely worried that the doctors have arrived at a pass where they seem to be prepared to fling every caution to the winds and operate in a fashion that, in my view, is not consistent with the paramount duty that they owe to their patients.”
Jose Sanchez
“There is one point on the M.O.U. I think it was point number fourteen that no member of the B.M.D.U. who participated would be punished. But then that was amended to include that no member of the Board would also be punished. So I think they felt that nothing would have been done in terms of relieving any of the board members of the finance controller of duty.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Well, I don’t know what the back and forth between the doctors and the board threw out in terms of the details. So if that is true then I would have to find out what is the rationale for that kind of position that the board is taken. What I want people to understand is that while the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is autonomous, basically it is the government, it is the minister of health that appoints the board and so ultimately, if the board would ever choose to act in a fashion that central government sees as not being consistent with the overall national interest, then central government always has that ultimate ability to act. I don’t sense that we are anywhere near to reaching that kind of a position.”
