K.H.M.H. gets facelift
The K.H.M.H.’s primary mission is to provide health care to Belizeans… but who cares for the K.H.M.H. when it needs urgent attention? Quite a few people it seems, including staff members who are giving their time to make the hospital more hospitable. Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods
No one will deny the fact that the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital building is badly in need of a fresh new coat of paint.
Lascelle Arnold, Concerned Citizen
“If you look at the hospital right now, it is really looking rundown. And if you have somewhere where the aesthetic is really nice and it’s painted good, that by itself would make you feel good. So when the ambulance takes you to the hospital or you have to go there for any emergency or whatever–regardless of what happens in Belize we end up at the Karl Heusner first and I think as a Belizean that I would like to see the place look very good.”
Concerned citizen and businessman Lascelle Arnold is part of a group of individuals, including the hospital management and staff, whose mission it is to uplift the aesthetics of the country’s main health care facility. According to K.H.M.H. Chief Executive Officer, Doctor Alvaro Rosado, the project is just one part of the Hospital Authority’s responsibility since it started to manage the institution almost three years ago.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado, C.E.O., Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital
“Shortly after it management, we developed a strategic plan, which included the gradual maintenance and uplifting of the entire institution. The Ministry of Health has been very, very helpful; they replaced the roof, which was leaking, through a special project that was on, they have repaired the equipment, and the board itself has replaced quite a bit of medical equipment in the hospital. We have repaired the interior parts of it; when we came the plumbing was bad, the ceiling was falling in, the tiles were lifting up and that sort of thing. We are now about finish, and if you note, the walls have just recently been painted inside and we’re finished with the inside of the hospital and we now want to go to the exterior parts of it.”
The job will cost a total of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and will be conducted in three phases. Dr. Rosado says the K.H.M.H. Board has already financially committed to the cause, but what is commendable is what the employees have given up to see conditions in their workplace improve.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“A hundred and sixty-two so far, out of four hundred and eighty employees have contributed one or more of their vacation days. When we convert that to cash, it’s gonna come out to eleven thousand dollars so far. If every employee at K.H.M.H. were to give one day, we would be getting something like thirty thousand dollars worth in cash from the employees.”
The private sector has also willing contributed and pledged to the project. However, the K.H.M.H. is short of seventeen thousand dollars and Rosado hopes the general public will assist by donating thirty dollars each.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“We ask for contributions in units of thirty dollars, which is the cost of painting two square yards of the hospital. And we will be giving the individuals a certificate for every thirty dollars, saying that they have contributed to paint two square yards of K.H.M.H.’s external walls.”
If you are interested in helping out K.H.M.H., contact the hospital’s Director of Financial Services, Sandra Miranda at telephone number 223-1548. If everything goes as planned, the K.H.M.H. will certainly be looking much brighter this Christmas. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
The project will be supervised by K.H.M.H. board member, Anthony Turton, a professional architect and engineer.
