If you visited one of the public hospitals or clinics around the country today, then you got your needs taken care of at no cost. That's because the government has removed all fees from public healthcare facilities. So whether it's a blood test or an x-ray, or if you're going into labor, you won't have to worry about scrambling to find the funds.
Today the Minister of Health told us that it's something he's been working on since he first took over the portfolio. He also explained that they crunched the numbers, it made sense to take this major step.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"Let me also while I respond to this question, state how long we have been thinking about this proposal. I spent over a year and a half, right after I became the Minister of Health and Wellness and my team, our directors came onboard and we started to look at accessibility, at our services, study the trends of persons accessing health services, with the possibility of NHI rolling out and all of these things. We felt it was high time that we remove a barrier to health services, especially to our vulnerable society, the people that can't afford it as well. As an area rep, I visited many of our communities, especially like in my rural communities, where we see people sometimes, you go to them, they are home sick, they don't go to the hospital, why? Because they feel like they don't have the money to pay for a basic service, a basic x-ray, or basic blood work that they need to do at the hospital, because of that, sometimes they are reluctant to go to the hospital, this really now opens an avenue to create universal access to healthcare."
"When we did the study, the reason why, when we did the study, we roughly were billing about a million dollars a year but collecting only about 40-45%, many of the rest of fees end up as bad debts. It's a similar situation at KHMH, but KHMH has it's own management structure and own purposes and I know they are reviewing their whole financial issues, but sometimes you hear only 20-25% of KHMH collectibles are actually received in the coffers and so it is a huge step towards making sure that we are able to address it so for me, it's not about the cost that we have lost, the revenue, it's about the benefits gained in making sure people have access to quality healthcare and to services that they so deserve to have at every facility that we are able to provide."
"Once it's clinical fees, they are no longer being collected so anybody that may have had any bill outstanding to the hospital, whether for maternity or x-ray or blood works, those are no longer existent as of the date we passed this regulation."
"And now it is our duty as the Ministry to ensure that we upscale our services, we provide more services for our people, making sure we have a sustainable supply of medication, that is our commitment. So removing the fees is only one part of the equation but it's also for us to ease the burden on our society and how best to do it in health and education and other areas."
But will this now create a new culture of hostilities at hospitals? We've all heard horror stories about patients being mistreated at public facilities, and that's while they were paying at least nominal fees. So now that it's all free, will that culture worsen? We asked the Minister for his thoughts.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"One thing I have always said, and I did this even when I was mayor, I am about customer service and I have reiterated my position through my CEO, through directors, to regional managers that every single person who visits any of our public facilities should be treated with respect, should be given the courtesy and the services that just as I would expect to get if I go to a facility, and just like you would expect to get if you go to a facility, we must treat others with respect and that's the policy of our ministry. People, yes, may have had some bad experiences but we are trying to ensure that our public servants understand that we are there to serve the Belizean people irrespective of the situation, we must always put ourselves in someone else's show in a time of need, in a time of crisis, and a time where, they only go to the hospital when they really need help, otherwise, they would have gone to a private facility. But we must always understand, and I hate to talk about this thing about culture, we may need to change our mindset as a society as to what we think and how we feel, we must treat people with respect if we want to get it, I say this because we go outside of the country and we do things perfectly by the books outside. We go to Chetumal, we follow every rule in the books, why can't we do it in Belize, why can't we do the same here in our own country?"
