K.H.M.H. has a new C.E.O.

Following the appointment of a new board at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in March, this morning the K.H.M.H. announced the new chief to replace Dr. Alvaro Rosado as C.E.O. He is Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth who will assume his new job in mid-August. Longsworth has worked in the public and private sector in the Caribbean, including as a lecturer at UWI and in the British Virgin Islands where he served as primary care director before returning home to Belize in 2000. This afternoon we spoke to Longsworth about his new appointment.

Jose Sanchez
“The public didn’t’ have the best experience with the K.H.M.H. How do you plan to improve the tarnished reputation of the K.H.M.H.?”

Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth, New C.E.O., K.H.M.H.
“I think that despite some of the things that has happened in the past, that in fact it has already improved. It’s already in a positive frame and it’s going to improve more under my watch.”

Jose Sanchez
“What areas do you see that needs development?”

Dr. Francis Longsworth
“Well, we’re on the edge of providing first class tertiary care. We are expanding our tertiary care services now. So the areas that we mentioned, like dialysis came up, that’s something we have to look into. The oncology services have to be developed. We have very minimal oncology services in Belize and we need more because our population is moving from an era of infectious diseases to an era of chronic diseases and cancers and it has to do with the lifestyles. In fact, we need to maintain and expand our collaboration with the public health outside of the hospital because it’s when the public health fails that t he patients end up in secondary care and tertiary care. So to me it is still very important to develop our primary care services to try and prevent some of these cases from ending up at the K.H.M.H.”

Jose Sanchez
“What immediate changes can we see under your watch?”

Dr. Francis Longsworth
“Well, I have to get to know the place first but I think, as we said, we have to work on our public relations. We have to work on our service delivery and our public relations because we do the work but we don’t sell ourselves very well.”

When he returned to Belize in 2000 Longsworth served as the Managing Director of Integral Health Care Limited. His contract is for two years and he says he will do his best to make the K.H.M.H. more media friendly.