PM Briceño Tours NHI Facilities in Belize City

Minister of Health Kevin Bernard and Prime Minister John Briceño visited three N.H.I. providers in Belize City today, the Mercy Clinic, Belize Healthcare Partners Limited and Matron Roberts Polyclinic. The familiarization tour was for government officials to get a clearer picture of what needs to be done to improve the National Health Insurance scheme.

Prime Minister John Briceño

John Briceño

“It’s a matter of proper planning and proper organization, for instance, the previous government expanded NHI to the Corozal District but it was limited services that they provided.  Under our administration with Dr. Mendez and Dr. Figueroa and his team, they went to Corozal and opened up the competition to provide services so that they even hired now a private clinic and by doing that kind of competition now the cost tends to come down.  And so the public hospitals also have to compete to be able to provide that service and with competition the cost has come down and that has allowed us in the Corozal District with the very same budget that was done under the previous government, now that we’re providing other services, imaging services, mammograms, blood tests and so many other things that were not being provided.  That goes to show that if we can find that balance where you use the private sector, you use the NGO, this is an NGO clinic and the government clinics we then can give more services to a lot more people.  The problem that’s happening right now is that everybody goes to the public hospitals.”