Government will take over 100% of Universal Health Care but no one knows the hour or the manner of that takeover. And in the interim - a good deal of mild panic and general misapprehension is taking root at Universal Health Services. A nd perhaps making it worse, is that the chairman, principal shareholder and lead visionary behind Universal, Dr. Victor Lizarraga is on leave. Though, he's expected back, in the interim, minority shareholder Dr. Atansacio Cob has been making the rounds, trying to allay the fears of staff and prepare them to smooth out the inevitable transition. He's been doing that along with Dr. Andre Sosa and today both men spoke to us and told us Universal is ready for a public takeover and has an important contribution to make.
Dr. Atansacio Cob, Universal Shareholder
"The Universal Health Services is still in full operations. All our centers are open. We are operating twenty four hours a day like how we used to operate; our critical/intensive care unit is still functioning; our diagnostic services, and our laboratory service is on. Our administrative staff, everybody is doing their work, maybe with a little more zeal now because we have talked to them and said it doesn't matter what happens, who becomes the new owner - we are the ones that run this place."
Dr. Andre Sosa, Universal
"Whatever the challenge or challenges that face us, we have to make it work. We have a team of one hundred and seventy plus individuals who have worked long and hard, many years now. These are mature confident people and we know that whatever way, form, or shape the new Universal assumes, we will make it work.
What happens to the service we provide this country, each and every individual who works for this company, and I am talking about a hundred and seventy plus individuals, I am talking about a hundred and seventy plus families, is very conscious of the moral and financial debt that we are all assuming to Belize. The moral debt is to continue to provide a high standard of medical care, treatments, and also to ensure that these treatments are available to the whole country of Belize. That is our moral debt
. Additionally there is desire and the intention that the whole debt be repaid no matter how long or how hard it is."
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Is this place able to fix itself, is this a problem that can be fixed or is the problem so systemic? Is there such a defect in the vision of the place that it can't be fixed, this place needs to be torn down, might it not be, and just used as a shell?
Dr. Andre Sosa,
"Jules instinct tells me that is not the case but I'll tell you something else, I am not an economist and that is the important thing you need to recognize, where my limitations are. We need the experts to help guide us to set this place on the right track."
Jules Vasquez,
You think that's where you went wrong before, that doctors were being administrators?
Dr. Andre Sosa,
"I will just say that it is important to use the best of the best."
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"Jules there are so many areas that can be improved in this hospital and this defaulting of this thirty plus million dollars didn't happen overnight like you said. It was hemorrhaging."
Jules Vasquez,
But you were there Dr. Atansacio, you are a director. You sat there while this happened.
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"Jules yes and that is a question, a hard question, because I have to assume responsibility and I am not looking to blame anybody. I think our board consisted of three people: a majority shareholder was owning like sixty six percent, Mr. Lucas Espat ten percent, and I was owning like twenty seven to thirty percent."
Jules Vasquez,
So you were outvoted you're saying?
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"Absolutely."
Jules Vasquez,
So you saw the ship, the hospital, heading into a state of irretrievable ruin and you were powerless to stop it?
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"That's right."
Jules Vasquez,
But then you could have resigned, this is on the public purse.
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"I think what could have been done and what was not done at that point in time, I cannot cry over that."
Jules Vasquez,
But you can't be absolved or are you absolving yourself of any accountability or responsibility; you were there.
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"Once I am a director Jules, I think I have to assume that I was a part of the problem."
Jules Vasquez,
Do you all accept that the dream of Universal is in some sense perhaps unsustainable in an economy without universal access to healthcare as provided for in something like an NHI? Maybe Universal is a dream that is too expensive for us to afford.
Dr. Andre Sosa,
"That is, I think a reasonable question to ask but we are strongly convinced, the people who make up this team, that what is required really is a rethinking, a restructuring of the institution, that can finally put it on a path to sustainability. We are firmly convinced that that is possible."
Jules Vasquez,
Would it have been a better approach to have gone, in your opinion, to have gone sixty to thirty three?
Dr. Atansacio Cob,
"Well I really don't have that answer Jules. We don't really know how that would have made this institution any better. Whatever the government has decided, we are going to work with. We are going to support it because in the end we want this Universal to keep providing the medicine and the services that it has been providing. And so to me as a physician, that is not an issue. The important issue for me is that Belize doesn't lose what we have established here and that it continues and we work hard to make it successful."
Government is awaiting recommendations from the task force before it decides on the operational details. That task force met this afternoon.
