The K.H.M.H. inquiry report; who will pay for losses?
The report of the K.H.M.H. Commission of Inquiry on alleged wrongdoings at the hospital was released in late April, and it has prompted a reaction from the Board of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Interestingly, the Board says it feels vindicated even though the commission found grey areas and made recommendations about numerous pay backs including one by the K.H.M.H. CEO. The board says it is gratified that the Commission found no evidence of corruption at the K.H.M.H. and that the Board’s Chairman, Dr Ricardo Fabro was also exonerated because his wife’s business, MC Pharmaceuticals, did no direct business with the hospital. But the Commission did cite numerous instances where things went wrong at the K.H.M.H. One of those instances was the purchase of sixteen thousand dollars worth of Isovue, which turned out to be the wrong type of contrast. The Commission found that the stock was not returned by the required date and that C.E.O. Dr. Gary Longsworth was aware of the erroneous purchase. For this, the Commission recommended that he repays a large portion of that cost. The Board also chided the Commission saying that issues of conflict of interest by employees and the actions of the Belize Medical and Dental Union to attempt to oust the Board and members of the administration, were not properly addressed. The Board criticized the Commission for not seeing it fit to penalize the actions of the B.M.D.U for the false allegations and for the subsequent special audits that took place, damaging reputations and tarnishing the work of the K.H.M.H.
Compare this to a plane crash in the ocean. Something had gone wrong in the hospital and the damage was done. There was something that needed attention and hence whistleblowers and an active union effort was applied to uncover the truth. Now the lost “black box” is whether it was incompetence or corruption. Either way, it’s something that had to be brought forward and people have to disciplined for it (what was done in no way was enough). Either the people who ran the purchasing and supplies were stupid to buy and manage items at exorbitant prices or they were receiving kickbacks, hence allowing purchasing of expensive items for purpose. In fact the commission still did not uncover the truth in the black box as to whether it was corruption but opted for incompetence and still did not resolve the issue.
The CEO and board are now criticizing the whistleblowers and the Union who basically showed that there was a flaw in the system. This board would have rather preferred to keep the truth covered. Its like ENRON’s CEO saying that the whistleblowers are responsible for the company’s downfall.
The 27 doctors did not call in sick for 16 hours for increased pay/ benefits. They did it so that the resources available to the public can be increased instead of being wasted on buying medications at several times the normal price.In reality, those medications are just the tip of the iceberg. Any small public hospital the size of KHMH anywhere in the world would be fully equipped with a budget of $3-4 million dollars. This hospital ends up paying 2-3x the retail price for medical equipment that you can find ridiculously cheaper on e-bay in 20minutes. You can ask the nurses and doctors who end up buying their own pulse oximeters and manometers because the ones of the hospital are rarely available and hardly working and at a price 3-4x above. Fore example, the hospital lacks basic peak flow meters for asthmatics. On the internet, a 3 minute search yields results of peak flow meters for an average of $20 belize. Why is is that we do not have them? Instead of getting a endoscopy unit at above $100,000, you can get it online on a retail medical shopping site for less than half the price. No, the people in government and the administration may not be corrupt but definitely very incompetent to continue their jobs in providing for the health of the Belizean public.
Imagine having to get a PanBio rapid dengue test ($15 each) at KHMH instead of going to one of the private institutes as you do now and paying above $40 for a similar test. Yes, finally the public ends up paying more and continues to tolerate a government not interested in public health and administration quite incompetent for the job. We doctors and nurse will continue to work at the hospital laughing at these jesters in our mind and no punishment to the doctors comes close to what the Belizean public already suffers from and we lament that. Compounded with a crime level that deteriorates the level of health care provided to the public, the doctors can only tell you what is wrong and work with the few tools and medications allowed to them to treat you. Even if you are rich or poor, health care is expensive and the incompetency (or is it corruption –> blackbox) makes it more costly. Ask them, the doctors who work at BMA and BHPL usually cannot afford the very services there. At the end of the day, the medical staff Karl Heusner will work with the few tools and medications available to do what they can to treat 90% of the population of the country and a punishment for exposing truth will not trouble them — they’ve seen a lot and will continue seeing a lot more.
Da who unu think wa pay then?. Just give it wa lee more time since unu can’t figure it out. Guess what, Belizean people noh soh stupid ok. All dis Bull s–t mi deh eena di closet fi soh long and nobody never seh anything fi wa while. This gwein right back eena di closet again until next election. The usual bottom line is, “Di Belizean People” wa ultimately have to pay for it, one way or di adda, trust me. Da we always di get di shaft without Vaseline anyway.
Medman, I really feel fi you and all di medical staff dem, but guess what, almost everything da politics now and you betta get use to it by now. We complain to and bout unu, unu must complain to di Minista, dehn di Minista complain to di Prime Minista. Eena di military wi call it “Chain a command”. We POOR PEOPLE wa always di cry, bicause like a sey before, anyway you put it, da we wa still get di shaft, even if wi ultimately have to end up eena wa Pine Box whe wil still can’t afford. Noh get mi wrong Medman, some ah we di POOR appreciate everything whe unu di do fi wi, da only to unu wi could goh to anyway. Thanks fi mek wi Belizeans dem know under what conditions unu di work, but please noh forget, one bad apple spoil di whole tree.