Ground to be Broken Soon for New Hospital in San Pedro

Andre Perez

Ground will be broken in the weeks ahead for the long-awaited hospital in San Pedro. Funding for the facility will come from Taiwan and it should take around two years to be completed. The government has re-assigned the location for the hospital to the southern portion of the island and, as Belize Rural South Area Representative Andre Perez shared, the hospital is going to sit on four point five acres of land and will be a state-of-the-art facility, complete with helipad, surgical ward, and pharmacy.

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“We secured the location. The designs were taking a little while because there were no designs at all. The contract has been a bit detailed as per what the OECC from Taiwan requires, so that’s important. It’s not only that we’re holding back, but they also are working along. Remember, it’s a grant, so we have to work along with the Taiwanese Government as well as it relates to how they want us to do things. And that has been a delay, but pretty shortly, we’re going to do the groundbreaking. And yes, we have secured the property as well. It’s right behind – down south of San Pedro. We’ll be building it and it’s a nice 4.5 acres, I believe it is. The details I’m getting from the Minister of Health, it is that it should be – having a full staff of about 250 employees, doctors, nurses, x-ray offices, pharmacies, everything. So it’s going to be a full-fledged hospital in terms of a special surgical, yes, a surgical unit. [It will be] complete with a helipad, a doctor’s quarters as well because that’s another problem, housing. That is a logistic nightmare that I’ll leave for the Ministry of Health. But certainly it’s a big change for us right now. I recall every time when I think of whatever comes to us here as it relates to the hospital. I’ll never forget, I believe it was in 2016 when we lost a young lady who was in labour. She died right at the terminal. I’ll never forget that. So that is going to change drastically, including Caye Caulker having a direct access to San Pedro. So that’s going to be a big difference because the distance from Caye Caulker to San Pedro is a lot shorter than getting to Belize City.”