Usually at the KHMH, doctors and administrations problems are private matters but since the issue is outed the man at the center of it all neurosurgeon Joel Cervantes commented publicly in an interview this afternoon with Alfonso Noble.
Dr. Joel Cervantes, Neurosurgeon
"There is a real communication problem between the KHMH's administration and us neurosurgeons, my self and Dr. Lara as such. Basically we have tried on more than one occasion to try to sit down with the CEO of the hospital and/or the KHMH Authority or Board, as such, and we have hit a stonewall. There is just no possibility of talking to these people, they just don't allow us to talk to them.
We do think that the child needs the surgery. Myself along with Dr. Lara are willing to do the surgery. We have not steered the family or the patient to a private setting. It is quite basic the problem there is, there is a communication problem that comes from the KHMH's administration that does not want to talk to us. They refuse to talk to us and talk aside, the important thing is that the little girl should be operated on as soon as possible.
We are both willing to do the surgery, to get this done and are more than willing to open up and to state each and every step of what this problem has been from the beginning to let the public know what the truth behind the matter is. Now, it is not greed; definitely it is not greed. Those people who can afford and want to see you in a private setting have a right to see you in a private setting. I do not agree that you should try to steer or squeeze poor people into a private setting if they cannot afford it. So it is not my fault nor Dr. Lara's fault that we are not working at the KHMH at this moment. That responsibility is totally up to the KHMH administration.
The situation is that the hospital has not invested in equipment in the neuro-surgery area so that we can give service to the Belizean population. The instruments, the tools, that we have at KHMH are donations. One thing is instruments and the second thing is materials. The KHMH has not invested and doesn't seem to want to invest in materials that are necessary for surgery.
When you touch bases and say, for example, that they have been deals under the table I would say that is totally untrue. I make reference to one specific case which is the case of Lisa Garoy who is the young Belizean woman who had an injury, as everybody can remember from the news, to the spine. That lady was in the hospital for approximately one month before surgery was done. The reason is that the hospital does not count, has never counted with, and as far as I know still does not have the materials necessary for surgery. So unfortunately for her surgery, there was only one option. We needed materials for implants to be able to stabilize the spine. The hospital does not provide them. We have served as a channel, as individuals, to contact the companies outside of the country and thereby with our transparency, because there are receipts that can be provided, the family comes up with the money and the materials are bought."
Alfonso Noble,
So all this talk by Dr. Rosado who says that you are getting handouts from the most poor and indigent people is totally false?
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"It is totally false and I challenge him to try to prove that. I am certain he cannot even start to prove that. It is such an unfortunate statement that I suggest to Dr. Rosado to speak not with the liver but to speak intelligently with the mind. Now, one other thing I wanted to comment on in this sense is that there is a private ward, or a semi-private ward, at Karl Heusner. It is nonsensical that as an employee of KHMH where you have a basic salary and you are hopeful that in a semi-private setting you will get something additional, that is not what you'd get at a private institution, monies that come in from patients who are Social Security patients, private insurance patients company patients, and private patients, months can pass and you can't get your monies and you are run in circles and in circles and in circles and nothing is solved."
Alfonso Noble,
But somebody is collecting.
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"As far as we know yes but the problem is that we have no way to know what is collected and what is not collected. The problem is that the doctors at the hospital, the majority of them, they either have apathy, I don't know if they are fearful, and they probably just don't want to speak out. But from a personal perspective, I see nothing wrong if these are issues whereby things are not corrected at Karl Heusner, the first intention was to sit down with the CEO and to have a leveled talk about the problems and to try to solve them. We have not been able to cross that line. I personally believe that if you have to take the bulls by the horn because something is not correct, there is no problem in stepping up and speaking out."
Alfonso Noble,
So you're telling me the health system is sitting on the edge of a knife there just being ready to be split into nothing. This is what you are describing to me here.
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"It has to be improved dramatically if we want to move into modern science, evidence based medicine, things must improve. Each and every person who holds a position, holds a job, at that institution must have the necessary background to hold that position. I respect the decision of the powers that be and the decisions they make in that sense but I do think in all fairness that all we are asking for is to be heard the issues we have and it is not the fact that you have a title that says you are a neuro-surgeon, it is the fact that you are not afraid to speak about issues that are not correct."
Alfonso Noble,
Would you at all contemplate going back to the KHMH to work as a neuro-surgeon?
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"Definitely. The chief motive for coming back home as a son of the soil, this soil, this Belizean soil, was to come back and serve my poor people, the common people of this country. So I am asking John Public like myself, because I am a common man, to stand up and speak out against injustice in this sense. That is what I am asking for."
While Cervantes has expressed his willingness to return to the KHMH, Rosado today announced that he's placed at least one advertisement in a Guatemalan newspaper seeking a new neurosurgeon. He says he plans to do the same in other Central American countries.
