E.U. provides funds for KHMH repairs

It was supposed to be a state of the art facility designed to give Belizeans the quality of hospital care that had been sorely lacking at the old dilapidated Belize City Hospital on the seafront. But the new Belize City Hospital, named after one of the nation’s pioneer physicians, never did live up to its advanced billing, both in the quality of construction and its systems of administration. Today the European Union took a big step toward setting things right by signing an agreement under which they will provide an additional 3 million Belize dollars to bring the building up to the standard it was supposed to meet in the first place. The Belize government will contribute just under $400,000 to the project. The deal was signed today in Belmopan by Prime Minister Said Musa and resident E.U. representative Marcel Van Opstal. What was not disclosed by either side was why the job was never done properly in the first place and why nobody was apparently held responsible. At the time of the original construction in the early 90’s it was alleged that the government did not provide proper supervision and that the European contractors spent much of their time–and our money–over long wet lunches at Belize City’s better restaurants. Work on the project will commence by June 30th and should be completed within 18 months.