Hospital’s contract for imaging services is cancelled
Until just a few years ago, critically injured Belizeans rushed through the doors of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital were often rushed back out within minutes, to receive vital imaging and diagnostic services at private institutions. It was a situation dangerous to the patient, not to mention costly and inconvenient. A landmark ten year agreement brokered in 2002 between the KHMH and Belize Diagnostic Centre was to change all that. Diagnostic had the equipment, KHMH had the space and together, they met patients’ needs. But today, via a press release, the KHMH announced that as of Friday, August twenty-seventh, the deal was off. According to the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Alvaro Rosado, there was a performance review scheduled for April of this year, but conflicts over the contract have now put an early end to the relationship.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“There were differences of interpretation of the contract between Belize Diagnostic Centre and Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.”
Janelle Chanona
“Differences such as?”
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“I wouldn’t want to go into the details but basically, the differences stemmed from two things: one, Belize Diagnostic Centre’s position that it had a monopoly, that the contract provided for a monopoly and that no one from KHMH could go anywhere else to get imaging. And secondly, it also stemmed from Belize Diagnostic Centre’s interpretation of the contract to mean that whoever stepped into the hospital and needed a CAT scan, then KHMH was obligated to pay for it. Those were the basic points.”
“There is no doubt that KHMH, because of the interest for our patients’ comfort, convenience, and affordability of imaging, we will be pursuing very aggressively, another alliance, where we can bring a private contractor in to provide the imaging at the KHMH.”
“The question might arise that will KHMH consider putting in its own imaging service. But actually, the experts have indicated that a country with three hundred thousand can be well served with one CAT scan and the public sector did not put that in this hospital because the private sector had already brought one in. Since then, they’ve brought in another. So there were two up to earlier this year. And earlier this year, a third CAT scan came into the country so I think it’s very, very unlikely that public sector funds will be used to purchase another expensive machine when there are three that can certainly take care of all the needs of Belize.”
The imaging services that were included in the agreement included CAT scans, ultrasounds, and mammograms. Until new arrangements can be made, those services will be handled off-site by private institutions.
