Government officially announced today that it will not comply with the Musa administration’s commitment to pay $300,000 monthly to Belize Health Care Partners. But it will continue paying for patients to receive hemo-dialysis. Government says it is currently tallying the exact cost of those services. Outside of that, Prime Minister Dean Barrow told us last week that no money will be paid to the Health Care Partners Hospital.
Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“We have already indicated that ain’t going to happen. We’ve been told there are dialysis services that are being provided by these people and that if we cut them off completely, those dialysis services would come to an end. Now we can’t have that happen so I’ve said to the Financial Secretary to get a proper costing, find out how many persons are receiving the benefits of this treatment, ensure that these were persons sent by the Ministry of Health. We will have to put a cap on it there. Whatever the costing is, that is all that we will give over to Belize Health Care Partners.
The last $370,000 was apparently given in January. We’ve given none since the change of government and certainly we are able to show that I think $80,000 of the $370,000 went on administrative expenses. Now if this money is to be for these specialized health care services, that’s what it is to be used for.
In any event, going forward as I said, we will only give what is necessary to cover the cost of the dialysis machine operation.”
The Kidney Association complains that new patients won’t be covered under the plan and that there is already a waiting list.
