But while all healthcare services are free, you may still need to dig into your pockets if you visit one of the public hospitals. That's because some facilities are still experiencing shortages. So while you may save on a hospital bed or medical tests, you'll still need to come prepared with even basic items IV tape and Tylenol.
That was the experience of one pregnant Orange Walk Town resident. She visited the NRH on Wednesday, and was discharged today. And for the past two days, she's had to use the same strip of IV tape. And during her stay, she found that the hospital's pharmacy was out of certain medication, forcing her husband to go to a pharmacy, and paying $70 for the meds.
She told us more about her experience today. She asked to appear off camera:
Voice of: NRH Patient
"I went because I have pain from my baby but it's not the date soon for it to be born so when I reach, I was hearing the nurses say we need to take our tape for when they put the injection, so they can put the tape, but I was thinking that they were just playing with that but when today they told me that I would go home and the nurse told me if I brought my tape, I told her, which tape? The bandage, you need to put the tape, she said, because we will take out the thing that we put for the injection and you need to put your tape, I told her no, and I told my husband, I was hearing it but I didn't believe it then she told me, we don't have, we nurses, we don't have any tape so you need to buy your tape. She said when you come back for labor, you need to bring your tape. I told my husband, what if I don't have money to buy tape? Like last night, I needed to buy pills for my pressure, my Tylenol, and I was like, I didn't know about that. I was hearing that they were saying, they were talking about the fees that they will not charge, but now this says that you need to take your things like that."
Courtney Menzies:
"So after they told you that, and you didn't have your tape, what did you do?"
Voice of: NRH Patient
"I told the nurse I didn't have and she told me, I will put the same one that I take off, and the clean one I will put on you and she did it like that."
Courtney Menzies:
"So she found the tape?"
Voice of: NRH Patient
"No, it's the same tape that they gave me from the day I reach, they used the same one. So she cut the part that was dirty and she put… yeah."
Courtney Menzies:
"And the Tylenol, so you tried to buy Tylenol?"
Voice of: NRH Patient
"Yes, I bought a medicine they gave me, the Tylenol and medicine they gave me, and my husband only could buy one."
Courtney Menzies:
"That's from the pharmacy at the hospital?"
Voice of: NRH Patient
"No, we bought it right here with Del La Fuente Pharmacy."
Courtney Menzies:
"So they didn't have any more?"
Voice of: NRH Patient
"No, they don't have anymore, and they said we needed to buy it because I had headache and I really needed it so my husband, he asked for two, but my husband only buy one and pills for pressure."
"For me, I told my husband, we aren't rich, but sometime he does his work and we have a little money, and I told him, if we don't have the money, how will we do it? Imagine those people that don't have money, and they go to the hospital because they say right there they could get, and what if they don't have the money to buy it?"
