Doctors and K.H.M.H. management still in negotiations

Doctors at the K.H.M.H. are back on routine after a two-day go-slow. But that does not mean all matters have been settled, particularly the thorny issue of contracts and purchase of supplies. The Belize Medical and Dental Union and the K.H.M.H. Management are still in negotiations.

Dr. Martha Habet, President, B.M.D.A.
“We are providing services and we are now in negotiation. We are writing a letter to the board to ask for a meeting to negotiate some points and we are hoping to have a positive answer. And we hope that after the meeting we will just get some positive answers. The meeting we hope to be on Monday. We don’t want anybody to get hurt in the meeting. Although we were seeing emergencies so nobody who really needed medical attention was left out. We need to have the quality of supplies, medications and equipment to work. It’s not just what you learn but it’s also what you use and how you use it. That is the main thing.”

Dr. Beatrice Thompson, Secretary, B.M.D.A.
“We’ve been complaining and the management refuses to see what we’re complaining about and they still want to say that there’s good management and we have all these things in place. Yet in reality it’s not translated into our working world. We, at the working level are the ones who come here at night and who have to battle with how to get a suture during the night, it is not fair for the patient because the management is at home sleeping and you’re here at the operating room trying to see how you’ll suture up that patient’s belly.”

Late word to News Five is that a representative from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize has been invited to sit in the negotiations.